The American JudiciaryBaldwin, Simeon E. (Simeon Eben)
History
The American Judiciary
Baldwin, Simeon E. (Simeon Eben)
Courts -- United States; Law -- United States -- History
The number of statutes which have been judicially pronounced in
whole or part invalid in the United States is very large. Among
the Acts of Congress which have fallen in this manner and have
been made the subject of elaborate opinions may be mentioned the
provision in the original Judiciary Act giving the Supreme Court
of the United States greater original jurisdiction than the
Constitution provided;[Footnote: Marbury _v._ Madison, I
Cranch's Reports, 137.] the Act of 1865, excluding from practice
in the United States courts attorneys who could not take the
"iron-clad oath" that they had not supported the South in the
Civil War;[Footnote: _Ex parte_ Garland, 4 Wallace's
Reports, 333.] the Legal Tender Act of 1866;[Footnote: Hepburn
_v._ Griswold, 8 Wallace's Reports, 603, overruled in the
Legal Tender Cases, 12 Wallace's Reports, 457.] the Act of 1870,
to protect the colored voter;[Footnote: United States _v._
Reese, 92 U. S. Reports, 214.] the Civil Rights Act of
1875;[Footnote: United States _v._ Stanley, 109
U. S. Reports, 3.] the Trade Mark Act of 1876,[Footnote: The
Trade Mark Cases, 100 U. S. Reports, 82.] and the Income Tax Act
of 1894.[Footnote: Pollock _v._ Farmers' Loan and Trust Co.,
157 U. S. Reports, 429.] Fifteen others of less importance have
fallen by the same sword. The Supreme Court of the United States
has also set aside in the same manner, as inconsistent with the
Constitution of the United States, over two hundred statutes
passed by States. Of the twenty-one acts of Congress thus
declared unconstitutional, the decisions as to all but two were
rendered after 1830; of the State statutes all but
twenty-six.[Footnote: Condensed Reports Supreme Court (Peters'
Ed.), 325. note a; see also 131 U. S. Reports, ccxxxv.] The
fourteenth amendment has added largely to the list of the latter
since its adoption in 1868.
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