Study and Report for American Federation of Labor Upon Judicial Control Over Legislatures as to Constitutional QuestionsOrdered prepared and printed in pamphlet form by St. Paul Convention of the A. F. of L. |
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14th Amendment 59 Law Ed act of Congress action Amendment American appeal authority Chicago Chief Justice Fuller Circuit Court citizens conclusive presumption Congress unconstitutional constitutionality coordinate branches Coppage decided decision declare acts declare an act declared unconstitutional declared void Declares invalid denied determination discussion Doctrine of Judicial due process duty effect employer enacted executive exercise fact Federal Constitution held Illinois important imposed interest Interference interstate commerce Invalidates act judges judgment judicial control judicial power judiciary jurisdiction Justice Harlan Justice Holmes Kansas Kentucky land lative legal tender legis legislative acts legislature liberty limited Marbury MILWAUKEE & ST Missouri Compromise opinion Parliament party passed Pennsylvania police power political present principle private property process of law prohibiting proposition provisions question reasonable refer refused regulations repugnant rule South Buffalo Railway statute Supreme Court taxation tion treaties trial by jury uncon unconstitutional United veto violation written constitution
Popular passages
Page 15 - If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each. So if a law be in opposition to the constitution; if both the law and the constitution apply to a particular case, so that the court must either decide that case conformably to the law, disregarding the constitution, or conformably to the constitution, disregarding the law, the court must determine which of these conflicting rules governs the case. This is of the very essence of judicial duty.
Page 5 - And it appears in our books, that in many cases, the common law will control acts of parliament, and sometimes adjudge them to be utterly void ; for when an act of parliament is against common right and reason, or repugnant, or impossible to be performed, the common law will control it, and adjudge such act to be void ; and therefore in 8 E 330 ab Thomas Tregor's case on the statutes of W.
Page 20 - And an act of congress which deprives a citizen of the United States of his liberty or property, merely because he came himself or brought his property into a particular territory of the United States, and who had committed no offense against the laws, could hardly be dignified with the name of due process of law.
Page 13 - that the laws of the several States, except where the Constitution, treaties, or statutes of the United States shall otherwise require or provide, shall be regarded as rules of decision in trials at common law in the courts of the United States, in cases where they apply.
Page 14 - Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and, consequently, the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.
Page 26 - The present assault upon capital is but the beginning. It will be but the stepping-stone to others, larger and more sweeping, till our political contests will become a war of the poor against the rich ; a war constantly growing in intensity and bitterness.
Page 20 - I do not forget the position, assumed by some, that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court; nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding, in any case, upon the parties to a suit, as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the government.
Page 21 - ... decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges.
Page 28 - Such liberty and right embraces the right to make contracts for the purchase of the labor of others and equally the right to make contracts for the sale of one's own labor...
Page 39 - In countries where the common law prevails, it has been customary from time immemorial for the legislature to declare what shall be a reasonable compensation under such circumstances, or, perhaps more properly speaking, to fix a maximum, beyond which any charge made would be unreasonable. Undoubtedly in mere private contracts, relating to matters in which the public has no interest, what is reasonable must be ascertained judicially.