Congress can invoke the commerce clause, which allows it to regulate commerce between the states, because gender violence limits victims' ability to participate in interstate commerce, she said.

She cited "a massive body of evidence," supporting the link between gender-based violence and interstate economics as justifying Congress' passing a violence bill under a commerce clause.

"Half the population cannot work or travel when they are being beaten and targeted," she said.

The massive body of evidence is comprised of Congressional findings from early 1990s studies on the economic impact of gender-based violence.

Fried dismissed this evidence with a quote from a law textbook that brought a laugh from an audience made up mainly of law students.

"Congressional findings can always be produced," he said. "Violence against women, unless in the case of pimps enforcing control over their stable, is not economic."

In a Supreme Court brief that Fried co-authored, he argues that if the commerce clause were interpreted so liberally, it would have to include not only gender-based crimes but "all crime...all activities which inflict injuries unintentionally…insomnia, obesity and a lack of exercise."