Federal vs. State Supervision of Insurance

This topic has been discussed for nearly a century--in fact ever since insurance began to take a prominent place in the business life of the country. The subject has been worn threadbare by theorists, by insurance practitioners of one kind or another, and by learned judges in opinions that have been among the most carefully reasoned. The question has been declared settled time and time again and anyone who starts digging into the cases and reading the arguments and opinions will soon appreciate the basis for the view that if there is anything judicially certain in our ever-changing business life it is the dictum of Mr. Justice Field in Paul vs. Virginia that, strange as it may seem, insurance is not commerce. This was and has remained the basis of the Supreme Court determination that insurance cannot be reached by Congress under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.