Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/256/368/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 10:04:10+00:00

Document:
It is not unconstitutional for Congress to require that a new constitutional amendment must be passed within a certain time.
1. Article V of the Constitution implies that amendments submitted thereunder must be ratified, if at all, within some reasonable time after their proposal. Pp. 256 U. S. 371, 256 U. S. 374.
2. Under this Article, Congress, in proposing an amendment, may fix a reasonable time for ratification. P. 256 U. S. 375.
3. The period of seven years, fixed by Congress in the resolution proposing the Eighteenth Amendment was reasonable. P. 256 U. S. 376.
4. The Eighteenth Amendment became a part of the Constitution on January 16, 1919, when, as the Court notices judicially, its ratification in the state legislatures was consummated, not on January 29, 1919, when the ratification was proclaimed by the Secretary of State. P. 256 U. S. 376.
5. As this Amendment, by its own terms, was to go into effect one year after being ratified, §§ 3 and 26, Title II, of the National Prohibition Act, which, by § 21, Title III, were to be in force from and after the effective date of the Amendment, were in force on January 16, 1920. P. 256 U. S. 376.
resolution, 40 Stat. 1050, proposing the amendment declared that it should be inoperative unless ratified within seven years; and, secondly, that, in any event, the provisions of the act which the petitioner was charged with violating, and under which he was arrested, had not gone into effect at the time of the asserted violation nor at the time of the arrest.
"The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress: Provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article, and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate."
It will be seen that this article says nothing about the time within which ratification may be had -- neither that it shall be unlimited nor that it shall be fixed by Congress. What then is the reasonable inference or implication? Is it that ratification may be had at any time, as within a few years, a century, or even a longer period, or that it must be had within some reasonable period which Congress is left free to define? Neither the debates in the federal convention which framed the Constitution nor those in the state conventions which ratified it shed any light on the question.
"No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said state. [Footnote 5]"
proposed without fixing any time for ratification, and which, after favorable action in less than the required number of states, had lain dormant for many years, could be resurrected and its ratification completed had been mooted on several occasions, but was still an open question.
"that an alteration of the Constitution proposed today has relation to the sentiment and the felt needs of today, and that, if not ratified early while that sentiment may fairly be supposed to exist, it ought to be regarded as waived, and not again to be voted upon, unless a second time proposed by Congress."
That this is the better conclusion becomes even more manifest when what is comprehended in the other view is considered; for, according to it, four amendments proposed long ago-two in 1789, one in 1810 and one in 1861 -- are still pending and in a situation where their ratification in some of the states many years since by representatives of generations now largely forgotten may be effectively supplemented in enough more states to make three-fourths by representatives of the present or some future generation. To that view few would be able to subscribe, and, in our opinion, it is quite untenable. We conclude that the fair inference or implication from Article V is that the ratification must be within some reasonable time after the proposal.
limits, to fix a definite period for the ratification we entertain no doubt. As a rule, the Constitution speaks in general terms, leaving Congress to deal with subsidiary matters of detail as the public interests and changing conditions may require, [Footnote 12] and Article V is no exception to the rule. Whether a definite period for ratification shall be fixed, so that all may know what it is and speculation on what is a reasonable time may be avoided, is, in our opinion, a matter of detail which Congress may determine as an incident of its power to designate the mode of ratification. It is not questioned that seven years, the period fixed in this instance, was reasonable if power existed to fix a definite time; nor could it well be questioned considering the periods within which prior amendments were ratified.
16, 1920. His alleged offense and his arrest were on the following day, so his claim that those provisions had not gone into effect at the time is not well grounded.
Some consideration had been given to the subject before, but without any definite action. Cong.Globe, 39th Cong. 1st Sess. 2771; 40th Cong.3d Sess. 912, 1040, 1309-1314.
Watson on the Constitution, vol. 2, pp. 1676-1679; House Doc. 54th Cong.2d Sess. No. 353, pt. 2, p. 300.
House Doc. 54th Cong.2d Sess. No. 353, pt. 2, p. 317 (No. 243); Ohio Senate Journal, 1873, pp. 590, 666, 667, 678; Ohio House Journal, 1873, pp. 848, 849. A committee charged with the preliminary consideration of the joint resolution reported that they were divided in opinion on the question of the validity of a ratification after so great a lapse of time.
House Doc. 54th Cong.2d Sess. No. 353, pt. 2, pp. 300, 320 (No. 295), 329 (No. 399).
12 Stat. 251; House Doc. 54th Cong.2d Sess. No. 353, pt. 2, pp. 195-197, 363 (No. 931), 369 (No. 1025).
Cong.Rec. 65th Cong. 1st Sess. pp. 5648-5651, 5652-5653, 5658-5661; 2d Sess. pp. 423-425, 428, 436, 443, 444, 445-446, 463, 469, 477-478.
United States v. Babbit, 1 Black 55, 66 U. S. 61; Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U. S. 651, 110 U. S. 658; McHenry v. Alford, 168 U. S. 651, 168 U. S. 672; South Carolina v. United States, 199 U. S. 437, 199 U. S. 451; Luria v. United States, 231 U. S. 9, 231 U. S. 24; The Pesaro, 255 U. S. 216.
"no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth § of the first article."
One of the clauses named covered the migration and importation of slaves, and the other deals with direct taxes.
When the federal convention adopted Article V, a motion to include another restriction forbidding any amendment whereby a state, without its consent, would "be affected in its internal police" was decisively voted down. The vote was: Yeas 3 -- Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware; nays 8 -- New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. Elliott's Debates, vol. 5, pp. 551, 552.
See Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 1 Wheat. 304, 14 U. S. 324-325; McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 17 U. S. 402-404; Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, 19 U. S. 413-414; Dodge v. Woolsey, 18 How. 331, 59 U. S. 347-348; Hawke v. Smith, 253 U. S. 221; Story on the Constitution (5th ed.) §§ 362, 363, 463-465.
Jameson on Constitutional Conventions, 4th ed., § 585.
Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 1 Wheat. 304, 14 U. S. 326; McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 17 U. S. 407.
Sen.Doc. No. 169, 66th Cong.2d Sess.; Ark.Gen. Acts 1919, p. 512; Ark.House Journal, 1919, p. 10; Ark.Sen. Journal, 1919, p. 16; Wyo.Sen. Journal, 1919, pp. 26, 27; Wyo.House Journal, 1919, pp. 27, 28; Mo.Sen. Journal, 1919, pp. 17, 18; Mo.House Journal, 1919, p. 40.

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