The Contract Clause appears in the United States Constitution, Article I, section 10, clause 1. It states:

No State shall ... pass any ... Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts.

The framers of the Constitution added this clause due to fear that states would continue a practice that had been widespread under the Articles of Confederation—that of granting "private relief." Legislatures would pass bills relieving particular persons (predictably, influential persons) of their obligation to pay their debts. It was this phenomenon that also prompted the framers to make bankruptcy law the province of the federal government.

See also

• Fletcher v. Peck
• Contract law
• Federalist Paper No. 10 at Yale Law School's Avalon Project (In which Madison argues that a strong federal government is needed to prevent factions, which are necessarily more influential at a local or state level, from gaining excessive power.)