Court Opinion

ID: 9419933
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:52:12.990492+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:21.282432
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Frankfurter,
concurring.
It is of course settled that this Court must consider, whenever the question is raised or even though not raised by counsel, the jurisdiction of the lower federal courts as well as the jurisdiction of this Court. Mansfield, C. & L. M. Ry. v. Swan, 111 U. S. 379, 382. But whether a State has standing to urge a claim of constitutionality under a *147Congressional grant-in-aid statute does not involve “jurisdiction” in the sense of a court’s power but only the capacity of the State to be a litigant to invoke that power. In this litigation the Government did not challenge the standing of Oklahoma to question the constitutionality of the Act until the case came here. I think it is too late to raise that question at this stage. Assuming that it is here, it is my view that under the Hatch Act, in the legislative and judicial context in which it must be read, the State can question only the correctness of the procedure and the determination of the Civil Service Commission, not the validity of the Act. Section 12 (b), (c), 54 Stat. 767, amending 53 Stat. 1147, 18 U. S. C. § 61l (b) and (c).
The Administrative Procedure Act does not apply to the present case. Act of June 11, 1946, 60 Stat. 237, § 12. That Act will, in due course, present problems for adjudication. We ought not to anticipate them when, being irrelevant, they are not before us. The Act ought not to be used even for illustrative purpose because illustrations depend on construction of the Act.
Apart from the foregoing, I agree with Mr. Justice Reed’s opinion.