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There is no given provision even comparable to creating a mutant registry, with the possible exception of clause 15, which allows for the calling of a militia. Under the power of calling a militia, the government has an implied need to regulate, and train militiamen. Just as it is prudent for Congress to have a registry of all of the weapons used by a militia, it is prudent for Congress to have registry of all metahuman powers. However, classifying all metahumans as militiamen is misleading. According to Webster’s dictionary, a militia is “1. a : a part of the organized armed forces of a country liable to call only in emergency. b : a body of citizens organized for military service. 2: the whole body of able-bodied male citizens declared by law as being subject to call to military service.”1
Under this definition, clause 15 is inadequate because there is an explicit need for organization of the militia men. Although there are some facets of organized metahumans, most notably The X-Men and The Brotherhood, it is misleading to state that all metahumans are not only trained fighters but organized. Therefore, the clause 15 argument does not hold water.
Congress then argues that regardless of whether the MRA is constitutional under U.S. Const. Art. I § 8, cl. 15, it is constitutional under the Necessary and Proper Clause. The Necessary and Proper Clause allows for Congress to create laws that exceed the enumerated powers of the legislative branch.2 The limits of the clause are seen to be the Tenth Amendment which states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”3 Clearly, there are no provisions which allow for the regulation of people and their weapons in the Constitution. However, there can be arguments for the spirit of the law and the Constitution. The Court has already noted arguments for the “spirit of the law” in M’Collouch v. State.
This Mutant Affairs Control Act image and fictional characters in this article are property of Marvel Comics