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Page Number: 51.0

10 

BOND v. UNITED STATES 

THOMAS, J., concurring in judgment 

icut expounded that position in the floor debate.  Hillhouse 
recognized  that  the  House  had  an  “indispensable  duty  to
look into every Treaty” to ensure that it is constitutional, 
i.e.,  “whether  it  related  to  objects  within  the  province  of
the  Treaty-making  power,  a  power  which  is  not  unlim-
ited.”  Id., at 660.  He further explained that “[t]he objects 
upon  which  it  can  operate  are  understood  and  well  de-
fined,  and  if  the  Treaty-making  power  were  to  embrace 
other  objects,  their  doings  would  have  no  more  binding 
force than if the Legislature were to assume and exercise
judicial powers under the name of legislation.”  Ibid. 

Hillhouse  “advert[ed]  to  the  general  definition  of  the 
Treaty-making  power”  to  explain  why  the  Treaty  Power
was not a threat to the House’s legislative prerogatives: 

“[I]f we look into our code of laws, we shall find few of
them that can be affected, to any great degree, by the
Treaty-making  power.    All  laws  regulating  our  own
internal  police,  so  far  as  the  citizens  of  the  United
States  alone  are  concerned,  are  wholly  beyond  its 
reach;  no  foreign  nation  having  any  interest  or  con-
cern  in  that  business,  every  attempt  to  interfere 
would be a mere nullity, as much as if two individuals 
were  to  enter  into  a  contract  to  regulate  the  conduct
or actions of a third person, who was no party to such 
contract.”  Id., at 662. 

He  accordingly  denied  that  “the  President  and  Senate 
hav[e] it in their power, by forming Treaties with an Indian
tribe  or  a  foreign  nation,  to  legislate  over  the  United
States,” concluding instead that the Treaty Power “cannot 
affect  the  Legislative  power  of  Congress  but  in  a  very
small and limited degree.”  Id., at 663. 

Other  Representatives  who  participated  in  the  Jay
Treaty  debates  agreed  with  Hillhouse  that  the  Treaty 
Power  had  a  limited  scope.    See,  e.g.,  id.,  at  516  (Rep.
Sedgwick)  (classifying  the  uses  of  the  power  as  “1.  To