116
Opinion of the Court
congressional intent to regulate to the outer limits of authority under the Commerce Clause. Id., at 273; see also United States v. American Building Maintenance Industries, 422 U. S. 271, 279-280 (1975) (phrase "engaged in commerce" is "a term of art, indicating a limited assertion of federal jurisdiction"); Jones v. United States, 529 U. S. 848, 855 (2000) (phrase "used in commerce" "is most sensibly read to mean active employment for commercial purposes, and not merely a passive, passing, or past connection to commerce").
It is argued that we should assess the meaning of the phrase "engaged in commerce" in a different manner here, because the FAA was enacted when congressional authority to regulate under the commerce power was to a large extent confined by our decisions. See United States v. Lopez, 514 U. S. 549, 556 (1995) (noting that Supreme Court decisions beginning in 1937 "ushered in an era of Commerce Clause jurisprudence that greatly expanded the previously defined authority of Congress under that Clause"). When the FAA was enacted in 1925, respondent reasons, the phrase "engaged in commerce" was not a term of art indicating a limited assertion of congressional jurisdiction; to the contrary, it is said, the formulation came close to expressing the outer limits of Congress' power as then understood. See, e. g., The Employers' Liability Cases, 207 U. S. 463, 498 (1908) (holding unconstitutional jurisdictional provision in Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) covering the employees of "every common carrier engaged in trade or commerce"); Second Employers' Liability Cases, 223 U. S. 1, 48-49 (1912); but cf. Illinois Central R. Co. v. Behrens, 233 U. S. 473 (1914) (noting in dicta that the amended FELA's application to common carriers "while engaging in commerce" did not reach all employment relationships within Congress' commerce power). Were this mode of interpretation to prevail, we would take into account the scope of the Commerce Clause, as then elaborated by the Court, at the date of the FAA's enactment in order to interpret what the statute means now.
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