Citizens Bank v. Alafabco, Inc., 539 U.S. 52, 6 (2003) (per curiam)

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Cite as: 539 U. S. 52 (2003)

Per Curiam

specific effect upon interstate commerce" if in the aggregate the economic activity in question would represent "a general practice . . . subject to federal control." Mandeville Island Farms, Inc. v. American Crystal Sugar Co., 334 U. S. 219, 236 (1948). See also Perez v. United States, 402 U. S. 146, 154 (1971); Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U. S. 111, 127-128 (1942). Only that general practice need bear on interstate commerce in a substantial way. Maryland v. Wirtz, 392 U. S. 183, 196- 197, n. 27 (1968); NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U. S. 1, 37-38 (1937).

This case is well within our previous pronouncements on the extent of Congress' Commerce Clause power. Although the debt-restructuring agreements were executed in Alabama by Alabama residents, they nonetheless satisfy the FAA's "involving commerce" test for at least three reasons. First, Alafabco engaged in business throughout the southeastern United States using substantial loans from the bank that were renegotiated and redocumented in the debt-restructuring agreements. Indeed, the gravamen of Alafabco's state-court suit was that it had incurred " 'massive debt' " to the bank in order to keep its business afloat, and the bank submitted affidavits of bank officers establishing that its loans to Alafabco had been used in part to finance large construction projects in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama.

Second, the restructured debt was secured by all of Alafabco's business assets, including its inventory of goods assembled from out-of-state parts and raw materials. If the Commerce Clause gives Congress the power to regulate local business establishments purchasing substantial quantities of goods that have moved in interstate commerce, Katzenbach v. McClung, 379 U. S. 294, 304-305 (1964), it necessarily reaches substantial commercial loan transactions secured by such goods.

Third, were there any residual doubt about the magnitude of the impact on interstate commerce caused by the particu-

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