The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation Part 222

AMENDMENT 22

PRESIDENTIAL TENURE

Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2. This Article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Const.i.tution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

ACTS OF CONGRESS HELD UNCONSt.i.tUTIONAL IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

1. Act of September 24, 1789 (1 Stat. 81, sec. 13, in part).

Provision that "* * * [the Supreme Court] shall have power to issue * * * writs of mandamus, in cases warranted by the principles and usages of law, to any * * * persons holding office, under authority of the United States" as applied to the issue of mandamus to the Secretary of State requiring him to deliver to plaintiff a commission (duly signed by the President) as justice of the peace in the District of Columbia, _held_ an attempt to enlarge the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, fixed by article III, section 2.

Marbury _v._ Madison, 1 Cr. 137 (February 24, 1803).

2. Act of February 20, 1812 (2 Stat. 677, ch. 22).

Provisions authorizing land officers to examine into "validity of claims to land * * * which are derived from confirmations made * * * by the governors of the Northwest * * * territory", _held_ not to authorize annulment of t.i.tle confirmed by Governor St. Clair in 1799, nor to validate a subsequent sale and patent by the United States. (_See_ Fifth Amendment.)

Reichert _v._ Felps, 6 Wallace 160 (March 16, 1868).

3. Act of March 6, 1820 (3 Stat. 548, sec. 8, proviso).

The Missouri Compromise, prohibiting slavery within the Louisiana Territory north of 36 30', except Missouri, _held_ not warranted as a regulation of Territory belonging to the United States under article IV, section 3, clause 2 (and _see_ Fifth Amendment).

Dred Scott _v._ Sandford, 19 Howard 393 (March 6, 1857).

4. Act of February 25, 1862 (12 Stat. 345, sec. 1); July 11, 1862 (12 Stat. 532, sec. 1); March 3, 1863 (12 Stat. 711, sec. 3), each in part only.

"Legal tender clauses", making noninterest-bearing United States notes legal tender in payment of "all debts, public and private", so far as applied to debts contracted before pa.s.sage of the act, _held_ not within express or implied powers of Congress under article I, section 8, and inconsistent with article I, section 10, and Fifth Amendment.

Hepburn _v._ Griswold, 8 Wallace 603 (February 7, 1870); overruled in Knox _v._ Lee (Legal Tender cases), 12 Wallace 457 (May 1, 1871).

5. Act of March 3, 1863 (12 Stat. 756, ch. 81, sec. 5).

"So much of the fifth section * * * as provides for the removal of a judgment in a State court, and in which the cause was tried by a jury to the circuit court of the United States for a retrial on the facts and law, is not in pursuance of the Const.i.tution, and is void" under the Seventh Amendment.

The Justices _v._ Murray, 9 Wallace 274 (March 14, 1870).

6. Act of March 3, 1863 (12 Stat. 766, ch. 92, sec. 5).

Provision for an appeal from the Court of Claims to the Supreme Court--there being, at the time, a further provision (sec. 14) requiring an estimate by the Secretary of the Treasury before payment of final judgments, _held_ to contravene the judicial finality intended by the Const.i.tution, article III.

Gordon _v._ United States, 2 Wallace 561 (March 10, 1865).

(Case was dismissed without opinion; the grounds upon which this decision was made were stated in a posthumous opinion by Chief Justice Taney printed in the appendix to volume 117 of the U.S. Reports at p. 697.)

7. Act of June 30, 1864 (13 Stat. 311, ch. 174, sec. 13).

Provision that "any prize cause now pending in any circuit court shall, on the application of all parties in interest * * * be transferred by that court to the Supreme Court * * *", as applied in a case where no action had been taken in the Circuit Court on the appeal from the District Court, _held_ to propose an appeal procedure not within article III, section 2.

The "Alicia", 7 Wallace 571 (January 25, 1869).

8. Act of January 24, 1865 (13 Stat. 424, ch. 20).

Requirement of a test oath (disavowing actions in hostility to the United States) before admission to appear as attorney in a Federal court by virtue of any previous admission, _held_ invalid as applied to an attorney who had been pardoned by the President for all offenses during the Rebellion--as _ex post facto_ (art. I, sec. 9, clause 3) and an interference with the pardoning power (art. II, sec. 2, clause 1).

Ex parte Garland, 4 Wallace 333 (January 14, 1867).

9. Act of July 13, 1866 (14 Stat. 138), amending act of June 30, 1864 (13 Stat. 284, ch. 173, sec. 122).

Tax on indebtedness of railroads, "* * * to whatsoever party or person the same may be payable", as applied to railroad bonds held by a munic.i.p.al corporation under authority of the State, _held_ an infringement of reserved State sovereignty.

United States _v._ Baltimore & O.R. Co., 17 Wallace 322 (April 3, 1873).

10. Act of March 2, 1867 (14 Stat. 477, ch. 169, sec. 13), amending act of June 30, 1864 (13 Stat. 281, sec. 116).

Tax on income of "* * * every person residing in the United States * * *

whether derived from * * * salaries * * * or from any source whatever * * *", as applied to income of State judges, _held_ an interference with reserved powers of State. (_See_ Tenth Amendment.)

The Collector _v._ Day, 11 Wallace 113 (April 3, 1871).

11. Act of March 2, 1867 (14 Stat. 484, ch. 169, sec. 29).

General prohibition on sale of naphtha, etc., for illuminating purposes, if inflammable at less temperature than 110 F., _held_ invalid "except so far as the section named operates within the United States, but without the limits of any State," as being a mere police regulation.

United States _v._ Dewitt, 9 Wallace 41 (February 21, 1870).

12. Act of May 31, 1870 (16 Stat. 140, ch. 114, sees. 3, 4).

Provisions penalizing (1) refusal of local election officials to permit voting by persons offering to qualify under State laws, applicable to any citizens; and (2) hindering of any person from qualifying or voting, _held_ invalid under Fifteenth Amendment.

United States _v._ Reese et al., 92 U.S. 214 (March 27, 1876).

13. Act of July 12, 1870 (16 Stat. 235, ch. 251).

Provision making Presidential pardons inadmissible in evidence in Court of Claims, prohibiting their use by that court in deciding claims or appeals, and requiring dismissal of appeals by the Supreme Court in cases where proof of loyalty had been made otherwise than as prescribed by law, _held_ an interference with judicial power under article III, section 1, and with the pardoning power under article II, section 2, clause 1.

United States _v._ Klein, 13 Wallace 128 (January 29, 1872).

14. Act of June 22, 1874 (18 Stat. 187, sec. 5).