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href="#Where_the_Constitution_is_legally_effective"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.3.4</span> <span>Where the Constitution is legally effective</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Where_the_Constitution_is_legally_effective-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-To_form_a_more_perfect_Union" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-3"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#To_form_a_more_perfect_Union"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.3.5</span> <span>To form a more perfect Union</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-To_form_a_more_perfect_Union-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Explanatory_notes" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Explanatory_notes"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5</span> <span>Explanatory notes</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Explanatory_notes-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-References" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6</span> <span>References</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-References-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-External_links" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#External_links"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">7</span> <span>External links</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-External_links-sublist" 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data-language-local-name="Arabic" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>العربية</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ca mw-list-item"><a href="https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre%C3%A0mbul_de_la_Constituci%C3%B3_dels_Estats_Units" title="Preàmbul de la Constitució dels Estats Units – Catalan" lang="ca" hreflang="ca" data-title="Preàmbul de la Constitució dels Estats Units" data-language-autonym="Català" data-language-local-name="Catalan" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Català</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-es mw-list-item"><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre%C3%A1mbulo_de_la_Constituci%C3%B3n_de_los_Estados_Unidos" title="Preámbulo de la Constitución de los Estados Unidos – Spanish" lang="es" hreflang="es" data-title="Preámbulo de la Constitución de los Estados Unidos" data-language-autonym="Español" data-language-local-name="Spanish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Español</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fa mw-list-item"><a href="https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%82%D8%AF%D9%85%D9%87_%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86_%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%B3%DB%8C_%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AA_%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%AF%D9%87" title="مقدمه قانون اساسی ایالات متحده – Persian" lang="fa" hreflang="fa" data-title="مقدمه قانون اساسی ایالات متحده" data-language-autonym="فارسی" data-language-local-name="Persian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>فارسی</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fr mw-list-item"><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A9ambule_de_la_Constitution_des_%C3%89tats-Unis" title="Préambule de la Constitution des États-Unis – French" lang="fr" hreflang="fr" data-title="Préambule de la Constitution des États-Unis" data-language-autonym="Français" data-language-local-name="French" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Français</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-gan mw-list-item"><a href="https://gan.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%BE%8E%E5%88%A9%E5%A0%85%E5%90%88%E7%9C%BE%E5%9C%8B%E6%86%B2%E6%B3%95%E5%97%B0%E5%89%8D%E8%A8%80" title="美利堅合眾國憲法嗰前言 – Gan" lang="gan" hreflang="gan" data-title="美利堅合眾國憲法嗰前言" data-language-autonym="贛語" data-language-local-name="Gan" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>贛語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ko mw-list-item"><a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EB%AF%B8%EA%B5%AD_%ED%97%8C%EB%B2%95_%EC%A0%84%EB%AC%B8" title="미국 헌법 전문 – Korean" lang="ko" hreflang="ko" data-title="미국 헌법 전문" data-language-autonym="한국어" data-language-local-name="Korean" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>한국어</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-it mw-list-item"><a href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preambolo_alla_Costituzione_degli_Stati_Uniti_d%27America" title="Preambolo alla Costituzione degli Stati Uniti d'America – Italian" lang="it" hreflang="it" data-title="Preambolo alla Costituzione degli Stati Uniti d'America" data-language-autonym="Italiano" data-language-local-name="Italian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Italiano</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-he mw-list-item"><a href="https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%91%D7%95%D7%90_%D7%9C%D7%97%D7%95%D7%A7%D7%AA_%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%A6%D7%95%D7%AA_%D7%94%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%AA" title="המבוא לחוקת ארצות הברית – Hebrew" lang="he" hreflang="he" data-title="המבוא לחוקת ארצות הברית" data-language-autonym="עברית" data-language-local-name="Hebrew" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>עברית</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-nl mw-list-item"><a href="https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preambule_van_de_Grondwet_van_de_Verenigde_Staten" title="Preambule van de Grondwet van de Verenigde Staten – Dutch" lang="nl" hreflang="nl" data-title="Preambule van de Grondwet van de Verenigde Staten" data-language-autonym="Nederlands" data-language-local-name="Dutch" 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For other uses, see <a href="/wiki/We_the_People_(disambiguation)" class="mw-disambig" title="We the People (disambiguation)">We the People (disambiguation)</a> and <a href="/wiki/Preamble_to_the_Constitution_(disambiguation)" class="mw-disambig" title="Preamble to the Constitution (disambiguation)">Preamble to the Constitution (disambiguation)</a>.</div> <p class="mw-empty-elt"> </p> <figure class="mw-default-size mw-halign-right" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Constitution_We_the_People.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Constitution_We_the_People.jpg/220px-Constitution_We_the_People.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="80" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Constitution_We_the_People.jpg/330px-Constitution_We_the_People.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Constitution_We_the_People.jpg/440px-Constitution_We_the_People.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1461" data-file-height="530" /></a><figcaption>Detail of the official handwritten copy of the Preamble, engrossed by <a href="/wiki/Jacob_Shallus" title="Jacob Shallus">Jacob Shallus</a></figcaption></figure> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Preamble_detail_from_Library_of_Congress_Dunlap_%26_Claypoole_original_printing_of_the_United_States_Constitution,_1787.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Preamble_detail_from_Library_of_Congress_Dunlap_%26_Claypoole_original_printing_of_the_United_States_Constitution%2C_1787.jpg/330px-Preamble_detail_from_Library_of_Congress_Dunlap_%26_Claypoole_original_printing_of_the_United_States_Constitution%2C_1787.jpg" decoding="async" width="330" height="198" class="mw-file-element" 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.mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{background:transparent!important}html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle a{color:var(--color-progressive)!important}}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .sidebar{display:none!important}}</style><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><table class="sidebar nomobile nowraplinks vcard hlist"><tbody><tr><td class="sidebar-pretitle">This article is part of <a href="/wiki/Category:Constitution_of_the_United_States" title="Category:Constitution of the United States">a series</a> on the</td></tr><tr><th class="sidebar-title-with-pretitle"><a href="/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_States" title="Constitution of the United States">Constitution<br />of the United States</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-image"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Greater_coat_of_arms_of_the_United_States.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Greater_coat_of_arms_of_the_United_States.svg/160px-Greater_coat_of_arms_of_the_United_States.svg.png" decoding="async" width="160" height="169" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Greater_coat_of_arms_of_the_United_States.svg/240px-Greater_coat_of_arms_of_the_United_States.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Greater_coat_of_arms_of_the_United_States.svg/320px-Greater_coat_of_arms_of_the_United_States.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="451" data-file-height="476" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background:lavender;"> <a href="/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_States#Original_frame" title="Constitution of the United States">Preamble and Articles</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <ul><li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Preamble</a></li></ul> <div class="hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Article_One_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article One of the United States Constitution">I</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article Two of the United States Constitution">II</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Three_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article Three of the United States Constitution">III</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Four_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article Four of the United States Constitution">IV</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Five_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article Five of the United States Constitution">V</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Six_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article Six of the United States Constitution">VI</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Seven_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article Seven of the United States Constitution">VII</a></li></ul> </div></td> </tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background:lavender;"> <a href="/wiki/List_of_amendments_to_the_Constitution_of_the_United_States#Ratified_amendments" title="List of amendments to the Constitution of the United States">Amendments to the Constitution</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="First Amendment to the United States Constitution">I</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Second Amendment to the United States Constitution">II</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Third_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Third Amendment to the United States Constitution">III</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution">IV</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution">V</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sixth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution">VI</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Seventh_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution">VII</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Eighth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution">VIII</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ninth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution">IX</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">X</a></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Eleventh_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution">XI</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twelfth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution">XII</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">XIII</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">XIV</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fifteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">XV</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sixteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">XVI</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Seventeenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">XVII</a></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Eighteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">XVIII</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">XIX</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twentieth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution">XX</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twenty-first_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution">XXI</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twenty-second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution">XXII</a></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Twenty-third_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution">XXIII</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twenty-fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution">XXIV</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution">XXV</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twenty-sixth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution">XXVI</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twenty-seventh_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution">XXVII</a></li></ul> </div> <hr /> <b><a href="/wiki/List_of_amendments_to_the_Constitution_of_the_United_States#Unratified_amendments" title="List of amendments to the Constitution of the United States">Unratified Amendments</a></b>:<div class="hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Congressional_Apportionment_Amendment" title="Congressional Apportionment Amendment">Congressional Apportionment</a></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Titles_of_Nobility_Amendment" title="Titles of Nobility Amendment">Titles of Nobility</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Corwin_Amendment" title="Corwin Amendment">Corwin</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Child_Labor_Amendment" title="Child Labor Amendment">Child Labor</a></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment" title="Equal Rights Amendment">Equal Rights</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/District_of_Columbia_Voting_Rights_Amendment" title="District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment">D.C. Voting Rights</a></li></ul> </div></td> </tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background:lavender;"> <a href="/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="History of the United States Constitution">History</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="hlist"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Timeline_of_drafting_and_ratification_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Timeline of drafting and ratification of the United States Constitution">Drafting and ratification timeline</a></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Constitutional_Convention_(United_States)" title="Constitutional Convention (United States)">Convention</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Signing_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Signing of the United States Constitution">Signing</a></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Federalism_in_the_United_States" title="Federalism in the United States">Federalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Republicanism_in_the_United_States" title="Republicanism in the United States">Republicanism</a></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights" title="United States Bill of Rights">Bill of Rights</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reconstruction_Amendments" title="Reconstruction Amendments">Reconstruction Amendments</a></li></ul> </div></td> </tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background:lavender;"> <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_States_of_America" class="extiw" title="s:Constitution of the United States of America">Full text</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_States_of_America" class="extiw" title="s:Constitution of the United States of America">Preamble and Articles I–VII</a></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights" class="extiw" title="s:United States Bill of Rights">Amendments I–X</a></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Additional_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution" class="extiw" title="s:Additional amendments to the United States Constitution">Amendments XI–XXVII</a></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Portal:Unsuccessful_attempts_to_amend_the_United_States_Constitution" class="extiw" title="s:Portal:Unsuccessful attempts to amend the United States Constitution">Unratified Amendments</a></li></ul></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-below" style="border-top:1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:1px #aaa solid;"> <ul><li><span class="nowrap"><span class="mw-image-border noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><span><img alt="flag" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a4/Flag_of_the_United_States.svg/16px-Flag_of_the_United_States.svg.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="8" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a4/Flag_of_the_United_States.svg/24px-Flag_of_the_United_States.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a4/Flag_of_the_United_States.svg/32px-Flag_of_the_United_States.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1235" data-file-height="650" /></span></span> </span><a href="/wiki/Portal:United_States" title="Portal:United States">United States portal</a></li> <li><span class="nowrap"><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Balance,_by_David.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="icon" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Balance%2C_by_David.svg/16px-Balance%2C_by_David.svg.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="15" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Balance%2C_by_David.svg/24px-Balance%2C_by_David.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Balance%2C_by_David.svg/32px-Balance%2C_by_David.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="606" data-file-height="558" /></a></span> </span><a href="/wiki/Portal:Law" title="Portal:Law">Law portal</a></li> <li><span class="nowrap"><span class="mw-image-border noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:A_coloured_voting_box.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="icon" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/01/A_coloured_voting_box.svg/16px-A_coloured_voting_box.svg.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="16" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/01/A_coloured_voting_box.svg/24px-A_coloured_voting_box.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/01/A_coloured_voting_box.svg/32px-A_coloured_voting_box.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="160" data-file-height="160" /></a></span> </span><a href="/wiki/Portal:Politics" title="Portal:Politics">Politics portal</a></li></ul></td></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-navbar" style="padding-top:0;"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239400231">.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:inline;font-size:88%;font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .navbar-collapse{float:left;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .navbar-boxtext{word-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .navbar ul{display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;line-height:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::before{margin-right:-0.125em;content:"[ "}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::after{margin-left:-0.125em;content:" ]"}.mw-parser-output .navbar li{word-spacing:-0.125em}.mw-parser-output .navbar a>span,.mw-parser-output .navbar a>abbr{text-decoration:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-mini abbr{font-variant:small-caps;border-bottom:none;text-decoration:none;cursor:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-full{font-size:114%;margin:0 7em}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-mini{font-size:114%;margin:0 4em}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}@media(prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}}@media print{.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:none!important}}</style><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:US_Constitution_article_series" title="Template:US Constitution article series"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:US_Constitution_article_series" title="Template talk:US Constitution article series"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:US_Constitution_article_series" title="Special:EditPage/Template:US Constitution article series"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p>The <b>Preamble to the United States Constitution</b>, beginning with the words <b>We the People</b>, is a brief <a href="/wiki/Preamble" title="Preamble">introductory statement</a> of the <a href="/wiki/United_States_Constitution" class="mw-redirect" title="United States Constitution">Constitution's</a> fundamental purposes and guiding principles. Courts have referred to it as reliable evidence of the <a href="/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States" title="Founding Fathers of the United States">Founding Fathers'</a> intentions regarding the Constitution's meaning and what they hoped the Constitution would achieve. </p><p>The preamble was mainly written by <a href="/wiki/Gouverneur_Morris" title="Gouverneur Morris">Gouverneur Morris</a>, a Pennsylvania delegate to the 1787 <a href="/wiki/Constitutional_Convention_(United_States)" title="Constitutional Convention (United States)">Constitutional Convention</a> held at <a href="/wiki/Independence_Hall" title="Independence Hall">Independence Hall</a> in Philadelphia. </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Text">Text</h2></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1244412712">.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 32px}.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;margin-top:0}@media(min-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{padding-left:1.6em}}</style><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>note 1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.</p></blockquote> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Drafting">Drafting</h2></div> <p>The Preamble was placed in the Constitution during the last days of the <a href="/wiki/Constitutional_Convention_(United_States)" title="Constitutional Convention (United States)">Constitutional Convention</a> by the Committee on Style, which wrote its final draft, with <a href="/wiki/Gouverneur_Morris" title="Gouverneur Morris">Gouverneur Morris</a> leading the effort. It was not proposed or discussed on the floor of the convention beforehand. The initial wording of the preamble did not refer to the people of <i>the United States</i>; rather, it referred to people of the various states, which was the norm. </p><p>In earlier documents, including the 1778 <a href="/wiki/Treaty_of_Alliance_(1778)" title="Treaty of Alliance (1778)">Treaty of Alliance</a> with France, the <a href="/wiki/Articles_of_Confederation" title="Articles of Confederation">Articles of Confederation</a>, and the 1783 <a href="/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_(1783)" title="Treaty of Paris (1783)">Treaty of Paris</a> recognizing American independence, the word "people" was not used, and the phrase <i>the United States</i> was followed immediately by a listing of the states, from north to south.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The change was made out of necessity, as the <a href="/wiki/Article_Seven_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article Seven of the United States Constitution">Constitution</a> provided that, whenever the popularly elected ratifying conventions of nine states gave their approval, it would go into effect for those nine, irrespective of whether any of the remaining states ratified.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Meaning_and_application">Meaning and application</h2></div> <p>The Preamble serves solely as an introduction and does not assign powers to the <a href="/wiki/Federal_government_of_the_United_States" title="Federal government of the United States">federal government</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> nor does it provide specific limitations on government action. Due to the Preamble's limited nature, no court has ever used it as a decisive factor in case <a href="/wiki/Adjudication" title="Adjudication">adjudication</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> except as regards <a href="/wiki/Frivolous_litigation" title="Frivolous litigation">frivolous litigation</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Judicial_relevance">Judicial relevance</h3></div> <p>The courts have shown interest in any clues they can find in the Preamble regarding the Constitution's meaning.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Courts have developed several techniques for <a href="/wiki/Statutory_interpretation" title="Statutory interpretation">interpreting</a> the meaning of statutes and these are also used to interpret the Constitution.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> As a result, the courts have said that interpretive techniques that focus on the exact text of a document<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> should be used in interpreting the meaning of the Constitution. Balanced against these techniques are those that focus more attention on broader efforts to discern the meaning of the document from more than just the wording;<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> the Preamble is also useful for these efforts to identify the "spirit" of the Constitution. </p><p>Additionally, when interpreting a legal document, courts are usually interested in understanding the document as its authors did and their motivations for creating it;<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> as a result, the courts have cited the Preamble for evidence of the history, intent and meaning of the Constitution as it was understood by the Founders.<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Although revolutionary in some ways, the Constitution maintained many <a href="/wiki/English_law#Common_law" title="English law">common law</a> concepts (such as <i><a href="/wiki/Habeas_corpus" title="Habeas corpus">habeas corpus</a></i>, <a href="/wiki/Jury_trial" title="Jury trial">trial by jury</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Sovereign_immunity" title="Sovereign immunity">sovereign immunity</a>),<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and courts deem that the Founders' perceptions of the legal system that the Constitution created (i.e., the interaction between what it changed and what it kept from the British legal system<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>) are uniquely important because of the authority "the People" invested them with to create it.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Along with evidence of the understandings of the men who debated and drafted the Constitution at the <a href="/wiki/Constitutional_Convention_(United_States)" title="Constitutional Convention (United States)">Constitutional Convention</a>, the courts are also interested in the way that government officials have put into practice the Constitution's provisions, particularly early government officials,<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> although the courts reserve to themselves the final authority to determine the Constitution's meaning.<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> However, this focus on historical understandings of the Constitution is sometimes in tension with the changed circumstances of modern society from the late 18th century society that drafted the Constitution; courts have ruled that the Constitution must be interpreted in light of these changed circumstances.<sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> All of these considerations of the political theory behind the Constitution have prompted the Supreme Court to articulate a variety of special rules of construction and principles for interpreting it.<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-19"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> For example, the Court's rendering of the purposes behind the Constitution have led it to express a preference for broad interpretations of individual freedoms.<sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Examples">Examples</h3></div> <p>An example of the way courts utilize the Preamble is <i>Ellis v. City of Grand Rapids</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-21"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Substantively, the case was about <a href="/wiki/Eminent_domain" title="Eminent domain">eminent domain</a>. The <a href="/wiki/Grand_Rapids,_Michigan" title="Grand Rapids, Michigan">City of Grand Rapids</a> wanted to use eminent domain to force landowners to sell property in the city identified as "<a href="/wiki/Blight" title="Blight">blighted</a>", and convey the property to owners that would develop it in ostensibly beneficial ways: in this case, to St. Mary's Hospital, a <a href="/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Church" class="mw-redirect" title="Roman Catholic Church">Catholic</a> organization. This area of substantive constitutional law is governed by the <a href="/wiki/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution">Fifth Amendment</a>, which is understood to require that property acquired via eminent domain must be put to a "public use". In deciding whether the proposed project constituted a "public use", the court pointed to the Preamble's reference to "promot[ing] the general Welfare" as evidence that "[t]he health of the people was in the minds of our forefathers".<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-22"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> "[T]he concerted effort for renewal and expansion of hospital and medical care centers, as a part of our nation's system of hospitals, is as a public service and use within the highest meaning of such terms. <i>Surely this is in accord with an objective of the United States Constitution: '* * * promote the general Welfare.</i><span style="padding-right:.15em;">'</span>"<sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>On the other hand, courts will not interpret the Preamble to give the government powers that are not articulated elsewhere in the Constitution. <i>United States v. Kinnebrew Motor Co.</i><sup id="cite_ref-24" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-24"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>23<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> is an example of this. In that case, the defendants were a car manufacturer and dealership indicted for a criminal violation of the <a href="/wiki/National_Industrial_Recovery_Act" class="mw-redirect" title="National Industrial Recovery Act">National Industrial Recovery Act</a>. The Congress passed the statute in order to cope with the <a href="/wiki/Great_Depression" title="Great Depression">Great Depression</a>, and one of its provisions purported to give to the President authority to fix "the prices at which new cars may be sold".<sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-25"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>24<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The dealership, located in Oklahoma City, had sold an automobile to a customer (also from Oklahoma City) for less than the price for new cars fixed pursuant to the Act. Substantively, the case was about whether the transaction in question constituted "interstate commerce" that Congress could regulate pursuant to the <a href="/wiki/Commerce_Clause" title="Commerce Clause">Commerce Clause</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-26"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>25<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Although the government argued that the scope of the Commerce Clause included this transaction, it also argued that the Preamble's statement that the Constitution was created to "<a href="/wiki/General_Welfare_Clause_(United_States_Constitution)" class="mw-redirect" title="General Welfare Clause (United States Constitution)">promote the general Welfare</a>" should be understood to permit Congress to regulate transactions such as the one in this case, particularly in the face of an obvious national emergency like the Great Depression. The court, however, dismissed this argument as erroneous<sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-27"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>26<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and insisted that the only relevant issue was whether the transaction that prompted the indictment actually constituted "interstate commerce" under the Supreme Court's precedents that interpreted the scope of the Commerce Clause.<sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-28"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>27<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Interpretation">Interpretation</h3></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Aspects_of_national_sovereignty">Aspects of national sovereignty</h4></div> <p>The Preamble's reference to the "United States of America" has been interpreted over the years to explain the nature of the governmental entity that the Constitution created (i.e., the federal government). In contemporary <a href="/wiki/International_law" title="International law">international law</a>, the world consists of <a href="/wiki/Sovereign_state" title="Sovereign state">sovereign states</a> (or "sovereign nations" in modern equivalent). A state is said to be "sovereign" if any of its ruling inhabitants are the supreme authority over it; the concept is distinct from mere land-title or "ownership."<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-29"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>28<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> While each state was originally recognized as sovereign unto itself, the Supreme Court held that the "United States of America" consists of only one sovereign nation with respect to foreign affairs and international relations; the individual states may not conduct foreign relations.<sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-30"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>29<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Although the Constitution expressly delegates to the federal government only some of the usual powers of sovereign governments (such as the powers to declare war and make treaties), all such powers inherently belong to the federal government as the country's representative in the international community.<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-31"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>30<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Domestically, the federal government's sovereignty means that it may perform acts such as entering into contracts or accepting bonds, which are typical of governmental entities but not expressly provided for in the Constitution or laws.<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-32"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>31<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Similarly, the federal government, as an attribute of sovereignty, has the power to enforce those powers that are granted to it (e.g., the power to "establish Post Offices and Post Roads"<sup id="cite_ref-33" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-33"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>32<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> includes the power to punish those who interfere with the postal system so established).<sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-34"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>33<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The Court has recognized the federal government's supreme power<sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-35"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>34<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> over those limited matters<sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-36"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>35<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> entrusted to it. Thus, no state may interfere with the federal government's operations as though its sovereignty is superior to the federal government's (discussed more <a class="mw-selflink-fragment" href="#To_form_a_more_perfect_Union">below</a>); for example, states may not interfere with the federal government's near absolute discretion to sell its own <a href="/wiki/Real_property" title="Real property">real property</a>, even when that real property is located in one or another state.<sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-37"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>36<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The federal government exercises its supreme power not as a unitary entity, but instead via the three coordinate branches of the government (legislative, executive, and judicial),<sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-38"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>37<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> each of which has its own prescribed powers and limitations under the Constitution.<sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-39"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>38<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In addition, the doctrine of <a href="/wiki/Separation_of_powers" title="Separation of powers">separation of powers</a> functions as a limitation on each branch of the federal government's exercise of sovereign power.<sup id="cite_ref-40" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-40"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>39<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>One aspect of the American system of government is that, while the rest of the world now views the United States as one country, domestically American constitutional law recognizes a federation of state governments separate from (and not subdivisions of) the federal government, each of which is sovereign over its own affairs.<sup id="cite_ref-41" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-41"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>40<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Sometimes, the Supreme Court has even analogized the States to being foreign countries to each other to explain the American system of State sovereignty.<sup id="cite_ref-42" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-42"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>41<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> However, each state's sovereignty is limited by the U.S. Constitution, which is the supreme law of both the United States as a nation and each state;<sup id="cite_ref-43" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-43"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>42<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> in the event of a conflict, a valid federal law controls.<sup id="cite_ref-44" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-44"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>43<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> As a result, although the federal government is (as discussed above) recognized as sovereign and has supreme power over those matters within its control, the American constitutional system also recognizes the concept of "State sovereignty", where certain matters are susceptible to government regulation, but only at the State and not the federal level.<sup id="cite_ref-45" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-45"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>44<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> For example, although the federal government prosecutes crimes against the United States (such as treason, or interference with the postal system), the general administration of criminal justice is reserved to the States.<sup id="cite_ref-46" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-46"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>45<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Notwithstanding sometimes broad statements by the Supreme Court regarding the "supreme" and "exclusive" powers the State and Federal governments exercise,<sup id="cite_ref-47" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-47"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>46<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> the Supreme Court and State courts have also recognized that much of their power is held and exercised concurrently.<sup id="cite_ref-48" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-48"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>47<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="People_of_the_United_States">People of the United States</h4></div> <p>The phrase "People of the United States" has been understood to mean "<a href="/wiki/Americans" title="Americans">nationals and citizens</a>." This approach reasons that, if the political community speaking for itself in the Preamble ("<i>We</i> the People") includes only U.S. nationals and citizens, by negative implication it specifically excludes non-citizens in some way.<sup id="cite_ref-49" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-49"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>48<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> It has also been construed to mean something like "all under the sovereign jurisdiction and authority of the United States."<sup id="cite_ref-50" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-50"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>49<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The phrase has been construed as affirming that the national government created by the Constitution derives its <a href="/wiki/Sovereignty" title="Sovereignty">sovereignty</a> <a href="/wiki/Republic" title="Republic">from the people</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-51" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-51"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>50<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> (whereas "United Colonies" had identified external monarchical sovereignty) as well as confirming that the government under the Constitution was intended to govern and protect "the people" directly, as one society, instead of governing only the states as political units.<sup id="cite_ref-52" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-52"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>51<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The Court has also understood this language to mean that the sovereignty of the government under the U.S. Constitution is superior to that of the States.<sup id="cite_ref-53" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-53"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>52<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Stated in negative terms, the Preamble has been interpreted as meaning that the Constitution was not the act of sovereign and independent states.<sup id="cite_ref-54" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-54"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>53<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="The_popular_nature_of_the_Constitution">The popular nature of the Constitution</h4></div> <figure typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:US10dollarbill-Series_2004A.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/US10dollarbill-Series_2004A.jpg/300px-US10dollarbill-Series_2004A.jpg" decoding="async" width="300" height="133" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/US10dollarbill-Series_2004A.jpg/450px-US10dollarbill-Series_2004A.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/US10dollarbill-Series_2004A.jpg/600px-US10dollarbill-Series_2004A.jpg 2x" data-file-width="7727" data-file-height="3436" /></a><figcaption>"We the People" from the original engrossed constitution has been displayed on the obverse of the <a href="/wiki/United_States_ten-dollar_bill" title="United States ten-dollar bill">United States ten-dollar bill</a> since 2006</figcaption></figure> <p>The Constitution claims to be an act of "We the People." However, because it represents a general <a href="/wiki/Social_contract" title="Social contract">social contract</a>, there are limits on the ability of individual citizens to pursue legal claims allegedly arising out of the Constitution. For example, if a law were enacted which violated the Constitution, not just anybody could challenge the statute's <a href="/wiki/Constitutionality" title="Constitutionality">constitutionality</a> in court; instead, only an individual who was negatively affected by the unconstitutional statute could bring such a challenge.<sup id="cite_ref-55" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-55"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>54<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> For example, a person claiming certain benefits that are created by a statute cannot then challenge, on constitutional grounds, the administrative mechanism that awards them.<sup id="cite_ref-56" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-56"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>55<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> These same principles apply to corporate entities,<sup id="cite_ref-57" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-57"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>56<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and can implicate the doctrine of <a href="/wiki/Exhaustion_of_remedies" title="Exhaustion of remedies">exhaustion of remedies</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-58" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-58"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>57<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In this same vein, courts will not answer hypothetical questions about the constitutionality of a statute.<sup id="cite_ref-59" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-59"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>58<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The judiciary does not have the authority to invalidate unconstitutional laws <i>solely</i> because they are unconstitutional, but may declare a law unconstitutional if its operation would injure a person's interests.<sup id="cite_ref-60" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-60"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>59<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> For example, creditors who lose some measure of what they are owed when a bankrupt's debts are discharged cannot claim injury, because Congress' power to enact bankruptcy laws is also in the Constitution and inherent in it is the ability to declare certain debts valueless.<sup id="cite_ref-61" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-61"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>60<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Similarly, while a person may not generally challenge as unconstitutional a law that they are not accused of violating,<sup id="cite_ref-62" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-62"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>61<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> once charged, a person may challenge the law's validity, even if the challenge is unrelated to the circumstances of the crime.<sup id="cite_ref-63" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-63"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>62<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Where_the_Constitution_is_legally_effective">Where the Constitution is legally effective</h4></div> <p>The Preamble has been used to confirm that the Constitution was made for, and is binding only in, the United States of America.<sup id="cite_ref-64" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-64"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>63<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> For example, in <i>Casement v. Squier</i>,<sup id="cite_ref-65" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-65"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>64<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> a serviceman in China during World War II was convicted of murder in the <a href="/wiki/United_States_Court_for_China" title="United States Court for China">United States Court for China</a>. After being sent to prison in the State of Washington, he filed a writ of <i>habeas corpus</i> with the local federal court, claiming he had been unconstitutionally put on trial without a jury.<sup id="cite_ref-66" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-66"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>65<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The court held that, since his trial was conducted by an American court and was, by American standards, basically fair, he was not entitled to the specific constitutional right of trial by jury while overseas.<sup id="cite_ref-67" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-67"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>66<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The Supreme Court held in 1901 that since the Preamble declares the Constitution to have been created by the "People of the United States", "there may be places within the jurisdiction of the United States that are no part of the Union."<sup id="cite_ref-68" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-68"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>67<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The following examples help demonstrate the meaning of this distinction:<sup id="cite_ref-69" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-69"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>68<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <ul><li><i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Geofroy_v._Riggs&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Geofroy v. Riggs (page does not exist)">Geofroy v. Riggs</a></i>, <a href="/wiki/List_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_cases,_volume_133" title="List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 133">133</a> <a href="/wiki/United_States_Reports" title="United States Reports">U.S.</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/133/258/">258</a> (1890): the Supreme Court held that a certain treaty between the United States and France which was applicable in "<a href="/wiki/U.S._state" title="U.S. state">the States of the Union</a>" was also applicable in <a href="/wiki/Washington,_D.C." title="Washington, D.C.">Washington, D.C.</a>, even though it is not a state or a part of a state.</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/DeLima_v._Bidwell" title="DeLima v. Bidwell">DeLima v. Bidwell</a></i>, <a href="/wiki/List_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_cases,_volume_182" title="List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 182">182</a> <a href="/wiki/United_States_Reports" title="United States Reports">U.S.</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/182/1/">1</a> (1901): the Supreme Court ruled that a customs collector could not, under a statute providing for taxes on imported goods, collect taxes on goods coming from <a href="/wiki/Puerto_Rico" title="Puerto Rico">Puerto Rico</a> after it had been ceded to the United States from Spain, reasoning that although it was not a State, it was under the jurisdiction of U.S. sovereignty, and thus the goods were not being imported from a foreign country. However, in <i><a href="/wiki/Downes_v._Bidwell" title="Downes v. Bidwell">Downes v. Bidwell</a></i>, <a href="/wiki/List_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_cases,_volume_182" title="List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 182">182</a> <a href="/wiki/United_States_Reports" title="United States Reports">U.S.</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/182/244/">244</a> (1901), the Court held that the Congress could constitutionally enact a statute taxing goods sent from <a href="/wiki/Puerto_Rico" title="Puerto Rico">Puerto Rico</a> to ports in the United States differently from other commerce, in spite of the constitutional requirement that "all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States,"<sup id="cite_ref-70" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-70"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>69<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> on the theory that although Puerto Rico could not be treated as a foreign country, it did not count as part of the "United States" and thus was not guaranteed "uniform" tax treatment by that clause of the Constitution. This was not the only constitutional clause held not to apply in Puerto Rico: later, a lower court went on to hold that goods brought from Puerto Rico into New York before the enactment of the tax statute held constitutional in <i>Downes</i>, could retroactively have the taxes applied to them notwithstanding the Constitution's ban on <a href="/wiki/Ex_post_facto_law" title="Ex post facto law"><i>ex post facto</i> laws</a>, even if at the time they were brought into the United States no tax could be applied to the goods because Puerto Rico was not a foreign country.<sup id="cite_ref-71" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-71"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>70<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Insular_Cases" title="Insular Cases">Ochoa v. Hernandez y Morales</a></i>, <a href="/wiki/List_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_cases,_volume_230" title="List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 230">230</a> <a href="/wiki/United_States_Reports" title="United States Reports">U.S.</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/230/139/">139</a> (1913): the <a href="/wiki/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution">Fifth Amendment's</a> requirement that "no person shall ... be deprived of ... property, without due process of law" was held, by the Supreme Court, to apply in Puerto Rico, even though it was not a State and thus not "part" of the United States.</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="To_form_a_more_perfect_Union">To form a more perfect Union</h4></div> <p>The phrase "to form a more perfect Union" has been construed as referring to the shift to the Constitution from the Articles of Confederation.<sup id="cite_ref-72" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-72"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>71<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The contemporaneous meaning of the word "perfect" was complete, finished, fully informed, confident, or certain.<sup id="cite_ref-73" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-73"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>72<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The phrase has been interpreted in various ways throughout history based on the context of the times. For example, shortly after the Civil War and the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court said that the "Union" was made "more perfect" by the creation of a federal government with enough power to act directly upon citizens, rather than a government with narrowly limited power that could act on citizens only indirectly through the states, e.g., by imposing taxes.<sup id="cite_ref-74" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-74"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>73<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Also, the institution was created as a government over the States and people, not an agreement (union) between the States.<sup id="cite_ref-75" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-75"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>74<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In the 21st century, following a pivotal, widely reported speech entitled "<a href="/wiki/A_More_Perfect_Union_(speech)" title="A More Perfect Union (speech)">A More Perfect Union</a>" by then-candidate <a href="/wiki/Barack_Obama" title="Barack Obama">Barack Obama</a> in 2008, the phrase has also come to mean the continual process of improvement of the country.<sup id="cite_ref-76" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-76"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>75<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>To know what has come before is to be armed against despair. If the men and women of the past, with all their flaws and limitations and ambitions and appetites, could press on through ignorance and superstition, racism and sexism, selfishness and greed, to create a freer, stronger nation, then perhaps we, too, can right wrongs and take another step toward that most enchanting and elusive destinations: a more perfect Union."</p><div class="templatequotecite">— <cite>Jon Meacham, 2018</cite></div></blockquote> <p>The phrase has also been interpreted to support the federal <a href="/wiki/Supremacy_clause" class="mw-redirect" title="Supremacy clause">supremacy clause</a> as well as to demonstrate that <a href="/wiki/Nullification_(U.S._Constitution)" title="Nullification (U.S. Constitution)">state nullification</a> of any federal law,<sup id="cite_ref-77" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-77"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>76<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> dissolution of the Union,<sup id="cite_ref-78" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-78"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>77<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> or <a href="/wiki/Secession" title="Secession">secession</a> from it,<sup id="cite_ref-79" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-79"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>78<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> are not contemplated by the Constitution. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Liberty" title="Liberty">Liberty</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Preamble" title="Preamble">Preamble</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Explanatory_notes">Explanatory notes</h2></div> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">In the handwritten engrossed copy of the Constitution maintained in the National Archives, the spelling "defence", now considered <a href="/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences" title="American and British English spelling differences">British</a>, is used in the preamble; in addition the "d" is lower case, unlike the other use of "defence" in the Constitution (Article I, Section 8) and unlike most of the other nouns in the Preamble. (<i>See</i> the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html">National Archives transcription</a> and <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters_downloads.html">the Archives' image of the engrossed document</a>. Retrieved both web pages on April 17, 2016.)</span> </li> </ol></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist reflist-columns references-column-width reflist-columns-2"> <ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite id="CITEREFMcDonald" class="citation web cs1 cs1-prop-unfit">McDonald, Forrest. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120421180046/http://www.heritage.org/constitution#!/articles/0/essays/1/preamble">"Essay on the Preamble"</a>. The Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original on April 21, 2012<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">July 13,</span> 2014</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Essay+on+the+Preamble&rft.pub=The+Heritage+Foundation&rft.aulast=McDonald&rft.aufirst=Forrest&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.heritage.org%2Fconstitution%2F%23%21%2Farticles%2F0%2Fessays%2F1%2Fpreamble&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APreamble+to+the+United+States+Constitution" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Schütze, Robert. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=KjAvINYwOGYC&pg=PA50">European Constitutional Law</a>, p. 50 (Cambridge University Press 2012).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>See <a href="/wiki/Jacobson_v._Massachusetts" title="Jacobson v. Massachusetts">Jacobson v. Massachusetts</a></i>, 197 U.S. 11, 22 (1905) ("Although th[e] preamble indicates the general purposes for which the people ordained and established the Constitution, it has never been regarded as the source of any substantive power conferred on the government of the United States, or on any of its departments."); <i>see also United States v. Boyer</i>, 85 F. 425, 430–31 (W.D. Mo. 1898) ("The preamble never can be resorted to, to enlarge the powers confided to the general government, or any of its departments. It cannot confer any power <i><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/per_se" class="extiw" title="wikt:per se">per se</a></i>. It can never amount, by implication, to an enlargement of any power expressly given. It can never be the legitimate source of any implied power, when otherwise withdrawn from the constitution. Its true office is to expound the nature and extent and application of the powers actually conferred by the constitution, and not substantively to create them." (quoting 1 JOSEPH STORY, COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES § 462 (1833)) (internal quotation marks omitted)).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">It is difficult to prove a negative, but courts have at times acknowledged this apparent truism. <i>See, e.g.</i>, <i>Boyer</i>, 85 F. at 430 ("I venture the opinion that no adjudicated case can be cited which traces to the preamble the power to enact any statute.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">In <i>Jacobs v. Pataki</i>, 68 F. App'x 222, 224 (2d Cir. 2003), the plaintiff made the bizarre argument that "the 'United States of America' that was granted Article III power in the Constitution is distinct from the 'United States' that currently exercises that power"; the court dismissed this contention with 3 words ("it is not") and cited a comparison of the Preamble's reference to the "<i>United States of America</i>" with Article III's vesting of the "judicial Power of the <i>United States</i>."</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Legal_Tender_Cases" title="Legal Tender Cases">Legal Tender Cases</a></i>, 79 U.S. (12 Wall.) 457, 531–32 (1871) ("[I]t [cannot] be questioned that, when investigating the nature and extent of the powers, conferred by the Constitution upon Congress, it is indispensable to keep in view the objects for which those powers were granted. This is a universal rule of construction applied alike to statutes, wills, contracts, and constitutions. If the general purpose of the instrument is ascertained, the language of its provisions must be construed with reference to that purpose and so as to subserve it. In no other way can the intent of the framers of the instrument be discovered. And there are more urgent reasons for looking to the ultimate purpose in examining the powers conferred by a constitution than there are in construing a statute, a will, or a contract. We do not expect to find in a constitution minute details. It is necessarily brief and comprehensive. It prescribes outlines, leaving the filling up to be deduced from the outlines."), <i>abrogated on other grounds by <a href="/wiki/Pennsylvania_Coal_Co._v._Mahon" title="Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon">Pa. Coal Co. v. Mahon</a></i>, 260 U.S. 393 (1922), <i>as recognized in <a href="/wiki/Lucas_v._South_Carolina_Coastal_Council" title="Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council">Lucas v. S.C. Coastal Council</a></i>, 505 U.S. 1003 (1992).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Cf. Badger v. Hoidale</i>, 88 F.2d 208, 211 (8th Cir. 1937) ("Rules applicable to the construction of a statute are equally applicable to the construction of a Constitution." (citing <i>Taylor v. Taylor</i>, 10 Minn. 107 (1865))).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Examples include the "plain meaning rule," <i><a href="/wiki/Pollock_v._Farmers%27_Loan_%26_Trust_Co." title="Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.">Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.</a></i>, 158 U.S. 601, 619 (1895) ("The words of the Constitution are to be taken in their obvious sense, and to have a reasonable construction."), <i>superseded on other grounds by</i> U.S. CONST. <a href="/wiki/Sixteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">amend. XVI</a>, <i>as recognized in <a href="/wiki/Brushaber_v._Union_Pacific_Railroad" class="mw-redirect" title="Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad">Brushaber v. Union Pac. R.R.</a></i>, 240 U.S. 1 (1916); <i><a href="/wiki/McPherson_v._Blacker" title="McPherson v. Blacker">McPherson v. Blacker</a></i>, 146 U.S. 1, 27 (1892) ("The framers of the Constitution employed words in their natural sense; and where they are plain and clear, resort to collateral aids to interpretation is unnecessary and cannot be indulged in to narrow or enlarge the text ...."), and <i><a href="/wiki/Noscitur_a_sociis" class="mw-redirect" title="Noscitur a sociis">noscitur a sociis</a></i>, <i><a href="/wiki/Virginia_v._Tennessee" title="Virginia v. Tennessee">Virginia v. Tennessee</a></i>, 148 U.S. 503, 519 (1893) ("It is a familiar rule in the construction of terms to apply to them the meaning naturally attaching to them from their context. Noscitur a sociis is a rule of construction applicable to all written instruments. Where any particular word is obscure or of doubtful meaning, taken by itself, its obscurity or doubt may be removed by reference to associated words. And the meaning of a term may be enlarged or restrained by reference to the object of the whole clause in which it is used.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>See, e.g.</i>, <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Hooven_%26_Allison_Co._v._Evatt&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Hooven & Allison Co. v. Evatt (page does not exist)">Hooven & Allison Co. v. Evatt</a></i>, 324 U.S. 652, 663 (1945) ("[I]n determining the meaning and application of [a] constitutional provision, we are concerned with matters of substance, not of form."), <i>overruled on other grounds by <a href="/w/index.php?title=Limbach_v._Hooven_%26_Allison_Co.&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Limbach v. Hooven & Allison Co. (page does not exist)">Limbach v. Hooven & Allison Co.</a></i>, 466 U.S. 353 (1984); <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=South_Carolina_v._United_States&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="South Carolina v. United States (page does not exist)">South Carolina v. United States</a></i>, 199 U.S. 437, 451 (1905) ("[I]t is undoubtedly true that that which is implied is as much a part of the Constitution as that which is expressed."), <i>overruled on other grounds by <a href="/wiki/Garcia_v._San_Antonio_Metro._Transit_Auth." class="mw-redirect" title="Garcia v. San Antonio Metro. Transit Auth.">Garcia v. San Antonio Metro. Transit Auth.</a></i>, 469 U.S. 528 (1985); <i><a href="/wiki/Ex_parte_Yarbrough" title="Ex parte Yarbrough">Ex parte Yarbrough</a></i>, 110 U.S. 651, 658 (1884) ("[I]n construing the Constitution of the United States, [courts use] the doctrine universally applied to all instruments of writing, that what is implied is as much a part of the instrument as what is expressed. This principle, in its application to the Constitution of the United States, more than to almost any other writing, is a necessity, by reason of the inherent inability to put into words all derivative powers ...."); <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Packet_Co._v._Keokuk&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Packet Co. v. Keokuk (page does not exist)">Packet Co. v. Keokuk</a></i>, 95 U.S. 80, 87 (1877) ("A mere adherence to the letter [of the Constitution], without reference to the spirit and purpose, may [sometimes] mislead.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Missouri_v._Illinois&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Missouri v. Illinois (page does not exist)">Missouri v. Illinois</a></i>, 180 U.S. 208, 219 (1901) ("[W]hen called upon to construe and apply a provision of the Constitution of the United States, [courts] must look not merely to its language but to its historical origin, and to those decisions of this court in which its meaning and the scope of its operation have received deliberate consideration.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/United_States_v._South-Eastern_Underwriters_Association" class="mw-redirect" title="United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Association">United States v. S.-E. Underwriters Ass'n</a></i>, 322 U.S. 533, 539 (1944) ("Ordinarily courts do not construe words used in the Constitution so as to give them a meaning more narrow than one which they had in the common parlance of the times in which the Constitution was written."), <i>superseded on other grounds by statute</i>, <a href="/wiki/McCarran-Ferguson_Act" class="mw-redirect" title="McCarran-Ferguson Act">McCarran-Ferguson Act</a>, ch. 20, 59 Stat. 33 (1945) (codified as amended at 15 U.S.C. §§ 1011–1015 (2006)), <i>as recognized in <a href="/w/index.php?title=U.S._Dep%27t_of_the_Treasury_v._Fabe&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="U.S. Dep't of the Treasury v. Fabe (page does not exist)">U.S. Dep't of the Treasury v. Fabe</a></i>, 508 U.S. 491 (1993); <i><a href="/wiki/Ex_parte_Bain" title="Ex parte Bain">Ex parte Bain</a></i>, 121 U.S. 1, 12 (1887) ("[I]n the construction of the language of the Constitution ..., we are to place ourselves as nearly as possible in the condition of the men who framed that instrument."), <i>overruled on other grounds by <a href="/wiki/United_States_v._Miller_(1985)" title="United States v. Miller (1985)">United States v. Miller</a></i>, 471 U.S. 130 (1985), <i>and <a href="/wiki/United_States_v._Cotton" title="United States v. Cotton">United States v. Cotton</a></i>, 535 U.S. 625 (2002).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-13">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/w/index.php?title=United_States_v._Sanges&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="United States v. Sanges (page does not exist)">United States v. Sanges</a></i>, 144 U.S. 310, 311 (1892) ("[T]he Constitution ... is to be read in the light of the common law, from which our system of jurisprudence is derived." (citations omitted)); <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Smith_v._Alabama&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Smith v. Alabama (page does not exist)">Smith v. Alabama</a></i>, 124 U.S. 465, 478 (1888) ("The interpretation of the Constitution of the United States is necessarily influenced by the fact that its provisions are framed in the language of the English common law, and are to be read in the light of its history.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-14">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/United_States_v._Wood" class="mw-redirect" title="United States v. Wood">United States v. Wood</a></i>, 299 U.S. 123, 142 (1936) ("Whether a clause in the Constitution is to be restricted by a rule of the common law as it existed when the Constitution was adopted depends upon the terms or nature of the particular clause." (citing <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Cont%27l_Ill._Nat%27l_Bank_%26_Trust_Co._v._Chi.,_Rock_Island_%26_Pac._Ry._Co.&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Cont'l Ill. Nat'l Bank & Trust Co. v. Chi., Rock Island & Pac. Ry. Co. (page does not exist)">Cont'l Ill. Nat'l Bank & Trust Co. v. Chi., Rock Island & Pac. Ry. Co.</a></i>, 294 U.S. 648 (1935))); <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Mattox_v._United_States&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Mattox v. United States (page does not exist)">Mattox v. United States</a></i>, 156 U.S. 237, 243 (1895) ("We are bound to interpret the Constitution in the light of the law as it existed at the time it was adopted, not as reaching out for new guaranties of the rights of the citizen, but as securing to every individual such as he already possessed as a British subject—such as his ancestors had inherited and defended since the days of Magna Charta.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-15">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Veazie_Bank_v._Fenno" title="Veazie Bank v. Fenno">Veazie Bank v. Fenno</a></i>, 75 U.S. (8 Wall.) 533, 542 (1869) ("We are obliged ... to resort to historical evidence, and to seek the meaning of the words [in the Constitution] in the use and in the opinion of those whose relations to the government, and means of knowledge, warranted them in speaking with authority.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-16">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/McPherson_v._Blacker" title="McPherson v. Blacker">McPherson v. Blacker</a></i>, 146 U.S. 1, 27 (1892) ("[W]here there is ambiguity or doubt [in the meaning of constitutional language], or where two views may well be entertained, contemporaneous and subsequent practical construction are entitled to the greatest weight."); <i><a href="/wiki/Murray%27s_Lessee_v._Hoboken_Land_%26_Improvement_Co." title="Murray's Lessee v. Hoboken Land & Improvement Co.">Murray's Lessee v. Hoboken Land & Improvement Co.</a></i>, 59 U.S. (18 How.) 272, 279–80 (1856) ("[A] legislative construction of the constitution, commencing so early in the government, when the first occasion for [a] manner of proceeding arose, continued throughout its existence, and repeatedly acted on by the judiciary and the executive, is entitled to no inconsiderable weight upon the question whether the proceeding adopted by it was 'due process of law.'" (citations omitted)).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-17"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-17">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Fairbank_v._United_States&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Fairbank v. United States (page does not exist)">Fairbank v. United States</a></i>, 181 U.S. 283, 311 (1901) ("[A] practical construction [of the Constitution] is relied upon only in cases of doubt .... Where there was obviously a matter of doubt, we have yielded assent to the construction placed by those having actual charge of the execution of the statute, but where there was no doubt we have steadfastly declined to recognize any force in practical construction. Thus, before any appeal can be made to practical construction, it must appear that the true meaning is doubtful."); <i>see <a href="/wiki/Marbury_v._Madison" title="Marbury v. Madison">Marbury v. Madison</a></i>, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 177 (1803) ("It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-18"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-18">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/In_re_Debs" title="In re Debs">In re Debs</a></i>, 158 U.S. 564, 591 (1895) ("Constitutional provisions do not change, but their operation extends to new matters as the modes of business and the habits of life of the people vary with each succeeding generation."), <i>overruled on other grounds by <a href="/w/index.php?title=Bloom_v._Illinois&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Bloom v. Illinois (page does not exist)">Bloom v. Illinois</a></i>, 391 U.S. 194 (1968); <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=R.R._Co._v._Peniston&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="R.R. Co. v. Peniston (page does not exist)">R.R. Co. v. Peniston</a></i>, 85 U.S. (18 Wall.) 5, 31 (1873) ("[T]he Federal Constitution must receive a practical construction. Its limitations and its implied prohibitions must not be extended so far as to destroy the necessary powers of the States, or prevent their efficient exercise."); <i>In re Jackson</i>, 13 F. Cas. 194, 196 (C.C.S.D.N.Y. 1877) (No. 7124) ("[I]n construing a grant of power in the constitution, it is to be construed according to the fair and reasonable import of its terms, and its construction is not necessarily to be controlled by a reference to what existed when the constitution was adopted.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-19"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-19">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>E.g.</i>, <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Richfield_Oil_Corp._v._State_Bd._of_Equalization&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Richfield Oil Corp. v. State Bd. of Equalization (page does not exist)">Richfield Oil Corp. v. State Bd. of Equalization</a></i>, 329 U.S. 69, 77, 78 (1946) ("[T]o infer qualifications does not comport with the standards for expounding the Constitution .... We cannot, therefore, read the prohibition against 'any' tax on exports as containing an implied qualification."); <i>Fairbank</i>, 181 U.S. at 287 ("The words expressing the various grants [of power] in the Constitution are words of general import, and they are to be construed as such, and as granting to the full extent the powers named."); <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Shreveport_v._Cole&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Shreveport v. Cole (page does not exist)">Shreveport v. Cole</a></i>, 129 U.S. 36, 43 (1889) ("Constitutions ... are construed to operate prospectively only, unless, on the face of the instrument or enactment, the contrary intention is manifest beyond reasonable question.")</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-20"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-20">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Boyd_v._United_States" title="Boyd v. United States">Boyd v. United States</a></i>, 116 U.S. 616, 635 (1886) ("[C]onstitutional provisions for the security of person and property should be liberally construed. A close and literal construction deprives them of half their efficacy, and leads to gradual depreciation of the right, as if it consisted more in sound than in substance. It is the duty of courts to be watchful for the constitutional rights of the citizen, and against any stealthy encroachments thereon."), <i>recognized as abrogated on other grounds in <a href="/w/index.php?title=Fisher_v._United_States&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Fisher v. United States (page does not exist)">Fisher v. United States</a></i>, 425 U.S. 391 (1976).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-21"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-21">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">257 <a href="/wiki/Federal_Supplement" title="Federal Supplement">F. Supp.</a> 564 (<a href="/wiki/United_States_District_Court_for_the_Western_District_of_Michigan" title="United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan">W.D. Mich.</a> 1966).<a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.leagle.com/decision/1966821257FSupp564_1721">[1]</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-22"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-22">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Id.</i> at 572.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-23"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-23">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Id.</i> at 574 (emphasis added).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-24"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-24">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">8 F. Supp. 535 (W.D. Okla. 1934).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-25"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-25">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Id.</i> at 535.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-26"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-26">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">U.S. CONST. art. I, § 8, cl. 3. ("The Congress shall have power ... [t]o regulate commerce ... among the several states ....").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-27"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-27">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Kinnebrew Motor Co.</i>, 8 F. Supp. at 539 ("Reference has been made in the government's brief to the 'Welfare Clause' of the Constitution as if certain powers could be derived by Congress from said clause. It is not necessary to indulge in an extended argument on this question for the reason that there is no such thing as the 'Welfare Clause' of the Constitution.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-28"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-28">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Id.</i> at 544 ("The only question which this court pretends to determine in this case is whether or not the sale of automobiles, in a strictly retail business in the vicinity of Oklahoma City, constitutes interstate commerce, and this court, without hesitation, finds that there is no interstate commerce connected with the transactions described in this indictment, and if there is no interstate commerce, Congress has no authority to regulate these transactions.")</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-29"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-29">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>See <a href="/w/index.php?title=Shapleigh_v._Mier&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Shapleigh v. Mier (page does not exist)">Shapleigh v. Mier</a></i>, 299 U.S. 468, 470, 471 (1937) (when certain land passed from Mexico to the United States because of a shift in the <a href="/wiki/Rio_Grande" title="Rio Grande">Rio Grande</a>'s course, "[s]overeignty was thus transferred, but private ownership remained the same"; thus, a decree of a Mexican government official determining title to the land, "if lawful and effective under the Constitution and laws of Mexico, must be recognized as lawful and effective under the laws of the United States, the sovereignty of Mexico at the time of that decree being exclusive of any other")</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-30"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-30">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Chae_Chan_Ping_v._United_States" title="Chae Chan Ping v. United States">Chae Chan Ping v. United States</a></i>, 130 U.S. 581, 604, 606 (1889) ("[T]he United States, in their relation to foreign countries and their subjects or citizens, are one nation, invested with powers which belong to independent nations, the exercise of which can be invoked for the maintenance of its absolute independence and security throughout its entire territory. The powers to declare war, make treaties, suppress insurrection, repel invasion, regulate foreign commerce, secure republican governments to the states, and admit subjects of other nations to citizenship are all sovereign powers, restricted in their exercise only by the Constitution itself and considerations of public policy and justice which control, more or less, the conduct of all civilized nations .... For local interests, the several states of the union exist, but for national purposes, embracing our relations with foreign nations, we are but one people, one nation, one power.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-31"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-31">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/United_States_v._Curtiss-Wright_Export_Corp." title="United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp.">United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp.</a></i>, 299 U.S. 304, 318 (1936) ("[T]he investment of the federal government with the powers of external sovereignty did not depend upon the affirmative grants of the Constitution. The powers to declare and wage war, to conclude peace, to make treaties, to maintain diplomatic relations with other sovereignties, if they had never been mentioned in the Constitution, would have vested in the federal government as necessary concomitants of nationality .... As a member of the family of nations, the right and power of the United States in that field are equal to the right and power of the other members of the international family. Otherwise, the United States is not completely sovereign.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-32"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-32">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/w/index.php?title=United_States_v._Bradley&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="United States v. Bradley (page does not exist)">United States v. Bradley</a></i>, 35 U.S. (10 Pet.) 343, 359 (1836) ("[T]he United States being a body politic, as an incident to its general right of sovereignty, has a capacity to enter into contracts and take bonds in cases within the sphere of its constitutional powers and appropriate to the just exercise of those powers, ... whenever such contracts or bonds are not prohibited by law, although the making of such contracts or taking such bonds may not have been prescribed by any preexisting legislative act."); <i><a href="/wiki/United_States_v._Tingey" title="United States v. Tingey">United States v. Tingey</a></i>, 30 U.S. (5 Pet.) 115, 128 (1831) ("[T]he United States has ... [the] capacity to enter into contracts [or to take a bond in cases not previously provided for by some law]. It is in our opinion an incident to the general right of sovereignty, and the United States being a body politic, may, within the sphere of the constitutional powers confided to it, and through the instrumentality of the proper department to which those powers are confided, enter into contracts not prohibited by law and appropriate to the just exercise of those powers .... To adopt a different principle would be to deny the ordinary rights of sovereignty not merely to the general government, but even to the state governments within the proper sphere of their own powers, unless brought into operation by express legislation.")</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-33"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-33">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">U.S. CONST. art. I, § 8, cl. 7</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-34"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-34">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/In_re_Debs" title="In re Debs">In re Debs</a></i>, 158 U.S. 564, 578, 582 (1895) ("While, under the dual system which prevails with us, the powers of government are distributed between the State and the Nation, and while the latter is properly styled a government of enumerated powers, yet within the limits of such enumeration, it has all the attributes of sovereignty, and, in the exercise of those enumerated powers, acts directly upon the citizen, and not through the intermediate agency of the State .... The entire strength of the nation may be used to enforce in any part of the land the full and free exercise of all national powers and the security of all rights entrusted by the Constitution to its care. The strong arm of the national government may be put forth to brush away all obstructions to the freedom of interstate commerce or the transportation of the mails. If the emergency arises, the army of the Nation, and all its militia, are at the service of the Nation to compel obedience to its laws.")</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-35"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-35">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/w/index.php?title=In_re_Quarles&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="In re Quarles (page does not exist)">In re Quarles</a></i>, 158 U.S. 532, 535 (1895) ("The United States are a nation, whose powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, within the sphere of action confided to it by the Constitution, are supreme and paramount. Every right, created by, arising under or dependent upon the Constitution, may be protected and enforced by such means, and in such manner, as Congress, in the exercise of the correlative duty of protection, or of the legislative powers conferred upon it by the Constitution, may in its discretion deem most eligible and best adapted to attain the object." (citing <i><a href="/wiki/Logan_v._United_States" title="Logan v. United States">Logan v. United States</a></i>, 144 U.S. 263, 293 (1892))); <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Dobbins_v._Comm%27rs_of_Erie_Cnty.&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Dobbins v. Comm'rs of Erie Cnty. (page does not exist)">Dobbins v. Comm'rs of Erie Cnty.</a></i>, 41 U.S. (16 Pet.) 435, 447 (1842) ("The government of the United States is supreme within its sphere of action."), <i>overruled on other grounds by <a href="/w/index.php?title=Graves_v._New_York_ex_rel._O%27Keefe&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Graves v. New York ex rel. O'Keefe (page does not exist)">Graves v. New York ex rel. O'Keefe</a></i>, 306 U.S. 466 (1939), <i>and superseded on other grounds by statute</i>, Public Salary Tax Act of 1939, ch. 59, 53 Stat. 574 (codified as amended at 4 U.S.C. § 111 (2006)).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-36"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-36">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/United_States_v._Butler" title="United States v. Butler">United States v. Butler</a></i>, 297 U.S. 1, 68 (1936) ("From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited. None to regulate agricultural production is given, and therefore legislation by Congress for that purpose is forbidden." (footnote omitted)); <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Pac._Ins._Co._v._Soule&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Pac. Ins. Co. v. Soule (page does not exist)">Pac. Ins. Co. v. Soule</a></i>, 74 U.S. (7 Wall.) 433, 444 (1869) ("The national government, though supreme within its own sphere, is one of limited jurisdiction and specific functions. It has no faculties but such as the Constitution has given it, either expressly or incidentally by necessary intendment. Whenever any act done under its authority is challenged, the proper sanction must be found in its charter, or the act is <a href="/wiki/Ultra_vires" title="Ultra vires">ultra vires</a> and void."); <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Briscoe_v._President_of_the_Bank_of_Ky.&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Briscoe v. President of the Bank of Ky. (page does not exist)">Briscoe v. President of the Bank of Ky.</a></i>, 36 U.S. (11 Pet.) 257, 317 (1837) ("The federal government is one of delegated powers. All powers not delegated to it, or inhibited to the states, are reserved to the states, or to the people.")</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-37"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-37">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>See</i> U.S. CONST. art. IV, § 3, cl. 2; <i>United States v. Bd. of Com'rs</i>, 145 F.2d 329, 330 (10th Cir. 1944) ("Congress is vested with the absolute right to designate the persons to whom real property belonging to the United States shall be transferred, and to prescribe the conditions and mode of the transfer; and a state has no power to interfere with that right or to embarrass the exercise of it. Property owned by the United States is immune from taxation by the state or any of its subdivisions.")</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-38"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-38">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Dodge_v._Woolsey&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Dodge v. Woolsey (page does not exist)">Dodge v. Woolsey</a></i>, 59 U.S. (18 How.) 331, 347 (1885) ("The departments of the government are legislative, executive, and judicial. They are co ordinate in degree to the extent of the powers delegated to each of them. Each, in the exercise of its powers, is independent of the other, but all, rightfully done by either, is binding upon the others. The constitution is supreme over all of them, because the people who ratified it have made it so; consequently, anything which may be done unauthorized by it is unlawful.")</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-39"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-39">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>See <a href="/w/index.php?title=Loan_Ass%27n_v._Topeka&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Loan Ass'n v. Topeka (page does not exist)">Loan Ass'n v. Topeka</a></i>, 87 U.S. (20 Wall.) 655, 663 (1875) ("The theory of our governments, state and national, is opposed to the deposit of unlimited power anywhere. The executive, the legislative, and the judicial branches of these governments are all of limited and defined powers."); <i><a href="/wiki/Hepburn_v._Griswold" title="Hepburn v. Griswold">Hepburn v. Griswold</a></i>, 75 U.S. (8 Wall.) 603, 611 (1870) ("[T]he Constitution is the fundamental law of the United States. By it the people have created a government, defined its powers, prescribed their limits, distributed them among the different departments, and directed in general the manner of their exercise. No department of the government has any other powers than those thus delegated to it by the people. All the legislative power granted by the Constitution belongs to Congress, but it has no legislative power which is not thus granted. And the same observation is equally true in its application to the executive and judicial powers granted respectively to the President and the courts. All these powers differ in kind, but not in source or in limitation. They all arise from the Constitution, and are limited by its terms.")</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-40"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-40">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Humphrey%27s_Executor_v._United_States" title="Humphrey's Executor v. United States">Humphrey's Ex'r v. United States</a></i>, 295 U.S. 602, 629–30 (1935) ("The fundamental necessity of maintaining each of the three general departments of government entirely free from the control or coercive influence, direct or indirect, of either of the others has often been stressed, and is hardly open to serious question. So much is implied in the very fact of the separation of the powers of these departments by the Constitution, and in the rule which recognizes their essential coequality."); <i>e.g.</i>, <i>Ainsworth v. Barn Ballroom Co.</i>, 157 F.2d 97, 100 (4th Cir. 1946) (judiciary has no power to review a military order barring servicemen from patronizing a certain dance hall due to separation of powers concerns because "the courts may not invade the executive departments to correct alleged mistakes arising out of abuse of discretion[;] ... to do so would interfere with the performance of governmental functions and vitally affect the interests of the United States")</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-41"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-41">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Tarble%27s_Case" title="Tarble's Case">Tarble's Case</a></i>, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 397, 406 (1872) ("There are within the territorial limits of each state two governments, restricted in their spheres of action but independent of each other and supreme within their respective spheres. Each has its separate departments, each has its distinct laws, and each has its own tribunals for their enforcement. Neither government can intrude within the jurisdiction, or authorize any interference therein by its judicial officers with the action of the other.")</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-42"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-42">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Bank_of_Augusta_v._Earle&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Bank of Augusta v. Earle (page does not exist)">Bank of Augusta v. Earle</a></i>, 38 U.S. (13 Pet.) 519, 590 (1839) ("It has ... been supposed that the rules of comity between foreign nations do not apply to the states of this Union, that they extend to one another no other rights than those which are given by the Constitution of the United States, and that the courts of the general government are not at liberty to presume ... that a state has adopted the comity of nations towards the other states as a part of its jurisprudence or that it acknowledges any rights but those which are secured by the Constitution of the United States. The Court thinks otherwise. The intimate union of these states as members of the same great political family, the deep and vital interests which bind them so closely together, should lead us, in the absence of proof to the contrary, to presume a greater degree of comity and friendship and kindness towards one another than we should be authorized to presume between foreign nations .... They are sovereign states, and the history of the past and the events which are daily occurring furnish the strongest evidence that they have adopted towards each other the laws of comity in their fullest extent."); <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Bank_of_U.S._v._Daniel&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Bank of U.S. v. Daniel (page does not exist)">Bank of U.S. v. Daniel</a></i>, 37 U.S. (12 Pet.) 32, 54 (1838) ("The respective states are sovereign within their own limits, and foreign to each other, regarding them as local governments."); <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Buckner_v._Finley&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Buckner v. Finley (page does not exist)">Buckner v. Finley</a></i>, 27 U.S. (2 Pet.) 586, 590 (1829) (" For all national purposes embraced by the federal Constitution, the states and the citizens thereof are one, united under the same sovereign authority and governed by the same laws. In all other respects, the states are necessarily foreign to and independent of each other. Their constitutions and forms of government being, although republican, altogether different, as are their laws and institutions.")</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-43"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-43">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Angel_v._Bullington&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Angel v. Bullington (page does not exist)">Angel v. Bullington</a></i>, 330 U.S. 183, 188 (1947) ("The power of a state to determine the limits of the jurisdiction of its courts and the character of the controversies which shall be heard in them is, of course, subject to the restrictions imposed by the Federal Constitution." (quoting <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=McKnett_v._St._Louis_%26_S.F._Ry._Co.&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="McKnett v. St. Louis & S.F. Ry. Co. (page does not exist)">McKnett v. St. Louis & S.F. Ry. Co.</a></i>, 292 U.S. 230, 233 (1934)) (internal quotation marks omitted)); <i><a href="/wiki/Ableman_v._Booth" title="Ableman v. Booth">Ableman v. Booth</a></i>, 62 U.S. (21 How.) 506, 516 (1856) ("[A]lthough the State[s] ... [are] sovereign within [their] territorial limits to a certain extent, yet that sovereignty is limited and restricted by the Constitution of the United States.")</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-44"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-44">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Public_Workers_v._Mitchell" class="mw-redirect" title="Public Workers v. Mitchell">United Pub. Workers v. Mitchell</a></i>, 330 U.S. 75, 95–96 (1947) ("The powers granted by the Constitution to the Federal Government are subtracted from the totality of sovereignty originally in the states and the people. Therefore, when objection is made that the exercise of a federal power infringes upon rights reserved by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, the inquiry must be directed toward the granted power under which the action of the Union was taken. If granted power is found, necessarily the objection of invasion of those rights, reserved by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, must fail."); <i>Tarble's Case</i>, 80 U.S. at 406 ("The two governments in each state stand in their respective spheres of action in the same independent relation to each other, except in one particular, that they would if their authority embraced distinct territories. That particular consists in the supremacy of the authority of the United States when any conflict arises between the two governments.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-45"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-45">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Worcester_v._Georgia" title="Worcester v. Georgia">Worcester v. Georgia</a></i>, 31 U.S. (6 Pet.) 515, 570 (1832) ("The powers given [to the federal government] are limited; and no powers, which are not expressly given, can be exercised by [it]: but, where given, they are supreme. Within the sphere allotted to them, the co- ordinate branches of the general government revolve, unobstructed by any legitimate exercise of power by the state governments. The powers exclusively given to the federal government are limitations upon the state authorities. But, with the exception of these limitations, the states are supreme; and their sovereignty can be no more invaded by the action of the general government, than the action of the state governments in arrest or obstruct the course of the national power."), <i>recognized as abrogated on other grounds in <a href="/wiki/New_Mexico_v._Mescalero_Apache_Tribe" title="New Mexico v. Mescalero Apache Tribe">New Mexico v. Mescalero Apache Tribe</a></i>, 462 U.S. 324 (1983).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-46"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-46">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Screws_v._United_States" title="Screws v. United States">Screws v. United States</a></i>, 325 U.S. 91, 109 (1945) ("Our national government is one of delegated powers alone. Under our federal system, the administration of criminal justice rests with the States except as Congress, acting within the scope of those delegated powers, has created offenses against the United States.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-47"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-47">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>E.g.</i>, <i><a href="/wiki/Kohl_v._United_States" title="Kohl v. United States">Kohl v. United States</a></i>, 91 U.S. 367, 372 (1876) ("Th[e federal] government is as sovereign within its sphere as the states are within theirs. True, its sphere is limited. Certain subjects only are committed to it; but its power over those subjects is as full and complete as is the power of the states over the subjects to which their sovereignty extends."). Taken very literally, statements like this could be understood to suggest that there is no overlap between the State and Federal governments.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-48"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-48">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Ex_parte_McNiel&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Ex parte McNiel (page does not exist)">Ex parte McNiel</a></i>, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 236, 240 (1872) ("In the complex system of polity which prevails in this country, the powers of government may be divided into four classes. [1] Those which belong exclusively to the states. [2] Those which belong exclusively to the national government. [3] Those which may be exercised concurrently and independently by both. [4] Those which may be exercised by the states, but only until Congress shall see fit to act upon the subject. The authority of the state then retires and lies in abeyance until the occasion for its exercise shall recur."); <i>People ex rel. Woll v. Graber</i>, 68 N.E.2d 750, 754 (Ill. 1946) ("The laws of the United States are laws in the several States, and just as binding on the citizens and courts thereof as the State laws are. The United States is not a foreign sovereignty as regards the several States but is a concurrent, and, within its jurisdiction, a paramount authority."); <i>Kersting v. Hargrove</i>, 48 A.2d 309, 310 (N.J. Cir. Ct. 1946) ("The United States government is not a foreign sovereignty as respects the several states but is a concurrent, and within its jurisdiction, a superior sovereignty. Every citizen of New Jersey is subject to two distinct sovereignties; that of New Jersey and that of the United States. The two together form one system and the two jurisdictions are not foreign to each other.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-49"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-49">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>See, e.g.</i>, <i><a href="/wiki/Dred_Scott_v._Sandford" title="Dred Scott v. Sandford">Dred Scott v. Sandford</a></i>, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393, 410–11 (1857) ("The brief preamble sets forth by whom [the Constitution] was formed, for what purposes, and for whose benefit and protection. It declares that [the Constitution] [was] formed by the people of the United States; that is to say, by those who were members of the different political communities in the several States; and its great object is declared to be to secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity. It speaks in general terms of the people of the United States, and of citizens of the several States, when it is providing for the exercise of the powers granted or the privileges secured to the citizen. It does not define what description of persons are intended to be included under these terms, or who shall be regarded as a citizen and one of the people. It uses them as terms so well understood, that no further description or definition was necessary. But there are two clauses in the Constitution which point directly and specifically to the negro race as a separate class of persons, and show clearly that <i>they were not regarded as a portion of the people or citizens of the Government then formed</i>." (emphasis added)), <i>superseded by constitutional amendment</i>, U.S. CONST. <a href="/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">amend. XIV</a>, § 1, <i>as recognized in <a href="/wiki/Slaughter-House_Cases" title="Slaughter-House Cases">Slaughter-House Cases</a></i>, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 36 (1873). <i>But see Dredd Scott</i> 60 U.S. 581–82 (Curtis, J., dissenting) (arguing that "the Constitution has recognized the general principle of public law, that allegiance and citizenship depend on the place of birth" and that the "necessary conclusion is, that those persons born within the several States, who, by force of their respective Constitutions and laws, are citizens of the State, are thereby citizens of the United States").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-50"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-50">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Jacobson_v._Massachusetts" title="Jacobson v. Massachusetts">Jacobson v. Massachusetts</a></i>, 197 U.S. 11, 22 (1905) (using this particular phrasing).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-51"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-51">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Cf. <a href="/wiki/Carter_v._Carter_Coal_Co." title="Carter v. Carter Coal Co.">Carter v. Carter Coal Co.</a></i>, 298 U.S. 238, 296 (1936) ("[T]he Constitution itself is in every real sense a law—the lawmakers being the people themselves, in whom under our system all political power and sovereignty primarily resides, and through whom such power and sovereignty primarily speaks. It is by that law, and not otherwise, that the legislative, executive, and judicial agencies which it created exercise such political authority as they have been permitted to possess. The Constitution speaks for itself in terms so plain that to misunderstand their import is not rationally possible. 'We the People of the United States,' it says, 'do ordain and establish this Constitution.' Ordain and establish! These are definite words of enactment, and without more would stamp what follows with the dignity and character of law."); <i><a href="/wiki/Yick_Wo_v._Hopkins" title="Yick Wo v. Hopkins">Yick Wo v. Hopkins</a></i>, 118 U.S. 356, 370 (1886) ("Sovereignty itself is, of course, not subject to law, for it is the author and source of law; but in our system, while sovereign powers are delegated to the agencies of government, sovereignty itself remains with <i>the people</i>, by whom and for whom all government exists and acts." (emphasis added)); <i><a href="/wiki/Marbury_v._Madison" title="Marbury v. Madison">Marbury v. Madison</a></i>, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 176 (1803) ("That <i>the people</i> have an <i>original right</i> to establish, for their future government, such principles as, in their opinion, shall most conduce to their own happiness, is the basis on which the whole American fabric has been erected .... The principles ... so established are deemed fundamental .... This <i>original and supreme will</i> organizes the government, and assigns to different departments their respective powers." (emphases added)).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-52"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-52">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Cf. <a href="/w/index.php?title=League_v._De_Young&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="League v. De Young (page does not exist)">League v. De Young</a></i>, 52 U.S. (11 How.) 184, 203 (1851) ("The Constitution of the United States was made by, and for the protection of, the people of the United States."); <i><a href="/wiki/Barron_v._Baltimore" title="Barron v. Baltimore">Barron v. Mayor of Balt.</a></i>, 32 U.S. (7 Pet.) 243, 247 (1833) ("The constitution was ordained and established by the people of the United States for themselves, for their own government, and not for the government of the individual states .... The people of the United States framed such a government for the United States as they supposed best adapted to their situation and best calculated to promote their interests."), <i>superseded on other grounds by constitutional amendment</i>, U.S. CONST. <a href="/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">amend. XIV</a>, <i>as recognized in <a href="/w/index.php?title=Chi.,_Burlington_%26_Quincy_R.R._v._Chicago&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Chi., Burlington & Quincy R.R. v. Chicago (page does not exist)">Chi., Burlington & Quincy R.R. v. Chicago</a></i>, 166 U.S. 226 (1897). While the Supreme Court did not specifically mention the Preamble in these cases, it seems apparent that it was expounding on the implications of what it understood reference to "the People" in the Preamble to mean.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-53"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-53">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Chisholm_v._Georgia" title="Chisholm v. Georgia">Chisholm v. Georgia</a></i>, 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419, 471 (1793) (opinion of Jay, C.J.) ("[I]n establishing [the Constitution], the people exercised their own rights, and their own proper sovereignty, and conscious of the plenitude of it, they declared with becoming dignity, 'We the people of the United States, do ordain and establish this Constitution.' Here we see the people acting as sovereigns of the whole country; and in the language of sovereignty, establishing a Constitution by which it was their will, <i>that the State Governments should be bound, and to which the State Constitutions should be made to conform.</i> Every State Constitution is a compact made by and between the citizens of a State to govern themselves in a certain manner; and the Constitution of the United States is likewise a compact made by the people of the United States to govern themselves as to general objects, in a certain manner." (emphasis added)). <i>abrogated by constitutional amendment</i>, U.S. CONST. <a href="/wiki/Eleventh_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution">amend. XI</a>, <i>as recognized in <a href="/wiki/Hollingsworth_v._Virginia" title="Hollingsworth v. Virginia">Hollingsworth v. Virginia</a></i>, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 378 (1798), <i>and abrogated by <a href="/wiki/Hans_v._Louisiana" title="Hans v. Louisiana">Hans v. Louisiana</a></i>, 134 U.S. 1, 12 (1890); <i>see also United States v. Cathcart</i>, 25 F. Cas. 344, 348 (C.C.S.D. Ohio 1864) (No. 14,756) ("[The Supreme Court has] den[ied] the assumption that full and unqualified sovereignty still remains in the states or the people of a state, and affirm[ed], on the contrary, that, by express words of the constitution, solemnly ratified by the people of the United States, the national government is supreme within the range of the powers delegated to it; while the states are sovereign only in the sense that they have an indisputable claim to the exercise of all the rights and powers guarantied to them by the constitution of the United States, or which are expressly or by fair implication reserved to them.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-54"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-54">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>See <a href="/w/index.php?title=White_v._Hart&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="White v. Hart (page does not exist)">White v. Hart</a></i>, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 646, 650 (1872) ("The National Constitution was, as its preamble recites, ordained and established by the people of the United States. It created not a confederacy of States, but a government of individuals."); <i><a href="/wiki/Martin_v._Hunter%27s_Lessee" title="Martin v. Hunter's Lessee">Martin v. Hunter's Lessee</a></i>, 14 U.S. (1 Wheat.) 304, 324–25 (1816) ("The constitution of the United States was ordained and established, not by the states in their sovereign capacities, but ..., as the preamble of the constitution declares, by 'the people of the United States.' ... The constitution was not, therefore, necessarily carved out of existing state sovereignties, nor a surrender of powers already existing in state institutions ...."); cf. <i><a href="/wiki/McCulloch_v._Maryland" title="McCulloch v. Maryland">M'Culloch v. Maryland</a></i>, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 316, 402–03 (1819) (rejecting a construction of the Constitution that would interpret it "not as emanating from the people, but as the act of sovereign and independent states. The powers of the general government ... are delegated by the states, who alone are truly sovereign; and must be exercised in subordination to the states, who alone possess supreme dominion;" instead, "the [Constitution] was submitted to the people. They acted upon it ... by assembling in convention .... [It] d[id] not, on ... account [of the ratifying conventions assembling in each state], cease to be the [action] of the people themselves, or become [an action] of the state governments.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-55"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-55">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Ala._State_Fed%27n_of_Labor_v._McAdory&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Ala. State Fed'n of Labor v. McAdory (page does not exist)">Ala. State Fed'n of Labor v. McAdory</a></i>, 325 U.S. 450, 463 (1945) ("Only those to whom a statute applies and who are adversely affected by it can draw in question its constitutional validity in a declaratory judgment proceeding as in any other."); <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Premier-Pabst_Sales_Co._v._Grosscup&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Premier-Pabst Sales Co. v. Grosscup (page does not exist)">Premier-Pabst Sales Co. v. Grosscup</a></i>, 298 U.S. 226, 227 (1936) ("One who would strike down a state statute as obnoxious to the Federal Constitution must show that the alleged unconstitutional feature injures him."); <i>Buscaglia v. Fiddler</i>, 157 F.2d 579, 581 (1st Cir. 1946) ("It is a settled principle of law that no court will consider the constitutionality of a statute unless the record before it affords an adequate factual basis for determining whether the challenged statute applies to and adversely affects the one who draws it in question."); <i>Liberty Nat'l Bank v. Collins</i>, 58 N.E.2d 610, 614 (Ill. 1944) ("The rule is universal that no one can raise a question as to the constitutionality of a statute unless he is injuriously affected by the alleged unconstitutional provisions. It is an established rule in this State that one may not complain of the invalidity of a statutory provision which does not affect him. This court will not determine the constitutionality of the provisions of an act which do not affect the parties to the cause under consideration, or where the party urging the invalidity of such provisions is not in any way aggrieved by their operation." (citation omitted)).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-56"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-56">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>See, e.g.</i>, <i>Ison v. W. Vegetable Distribs.</i>, 59 P.2d 649, 655 (Ariz. 1936) ("It is the general rule of law that when a party invokes the benefit of a statute, he may not, in one and the same breath, claim a right granted by it and reject the terms upon which the right is granted."); <i>State ex rel. Sorensen v. S. Neb. Power Co.</i>, 268 N.W. 284, 285 (Neb. 1936) ("[In this case,] defendants ... invoked the statute, ... relied upon and t[ook] advantage of it, and are now estopped to assail the statute as unconstitutional."). It is important not to read these too broadly. For example, in <i>In re Auditor Gen.</i>, 266 N.W. 464 (Mich. 1936), certain property had been foreclosed upon for delinquent payment of taxes. A statute changed the terms by which foreclosure sales had to be published and announced in the community. The Michigan Supreme Court held that it was not necessary to question the validity of the <i>taxes</i> whose nonpayment led to the foreclosure, to have standing to question the validity of the <i>procedure</i> by which the foreclosure sale was being conducted.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-57"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-57">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>E.g.</i>, <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Am._Power_%26_Light_Co._v._SEC&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Am. Power & Light Co. v. SEC (page does not exist)">Am. Power & Light Co. v. SEC</a></i>, 329 U.S. 90, 107 (1946) (a claim that the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 "is void in the absence of an express provision for notice and opportunity for hearing as to security holders regarding proceedings under that section [is groundless]. The short answer is that such a contention can be raised properly only by a security holder who has suffered injury due to lack of notice or opportunity for hearing. No security holder of that type is now before us. The management[] of American ... admittedly w[as] notified and participated in the hearings ... and ... possess[es] no standing to assert the invalidity of that section from the viewpoint of the security holders' constitutional rights to notice and hearing"); <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Virginian_Ry._Co._v._Sys._Fed%27n_No._40,_Ry._Employees_Dep%27t&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Virginian Ry. Co. v. Sys. Fed'n No. 40, Ry. Employees Dep't (page does not exist)">Virginian Ry. Co. v. Sys. Fed'n No. 40, Ry. Employees Dep't</a></i>, 300 U.S. 515, 558 (1937) (under the Railway Labor Act, a "railroad can complain only of the infringement of its own constitutional immunity, not that of its employees" (citations omitted)).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-58"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-58">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>E.g.</i>, <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Anniston_Mfg._Co._v._Davis&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Anniston Mfg. Co. v. Davis (page does not exist)">Anniston Mfg. Co. v. Davis</a></i>, 301 U.S. 337, 353 (1937) ("Constitutional questions are not to be decided hypothetically. When particular facts control the decision they must be shown. Petitioner's contention as to impossibility of proof is premature .... For the present purpose it is sufficient to hold, and we do hold, that the petitioner may constitutionally be required to present all the pertinent facts in the prescribed administrative proceeding and may there raise, and ultimately may present for judicial review, any legal question which may arise as the facts are developed." (citation omitted)).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-59"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-59">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Public_Workers_v._Mitchell" class="mw-redirect" title="Public Workers v. Mitchell">United Pub. Workers v. Mitchell</a></i>, 330 U.S. 75, 89–90 (1947) ("The power of courts, and ultimately of this Court, to pass upon the constitutionality of acts of Congress arises only when the interests of litigants require the use of this judicial authority for their protection against actual interference. A hypothetical threat is not enough.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-60"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-60">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Sparks v. Hart Coal Corp.</i>, 74 F.2d 697, 699 (6th Cir. 1934) ("It has long been settled that courts have no power per se to review and annul acts of Congress on the ground that they are unconstitutional. That question may be considered only when the justification for some direct injury suffered or threatened, presenting a justiciable issue, is made to rest upon such act."); <i>e.g.</i>, <i>Manne v. Comm'r</i>, 155 F.2d 304, 307 (8th Cir. 1946) ("A taxpayer alleging unconstitutionality of an act must show not only that the act is invalid, but that he has sustained some direct injury as the result of its enforcement.") (citing <i><a href="/wiki/Massachusetts_v._Mellon" title="Massachusetts v. Mellon">Massachusetts v. Mellon</a></i>, 262 U.S. 447 (1923)).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-61"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-61">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Kuehner_v._Irving_Trust_Co.&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Kuehner v. Irving Trust Co. (page does not exist)">Kuehner v. Irving Trust Co.</a></i>, 299 U.S. 445, 452, 453 (1937) ("While, therefore, the Fifth Amendment forbids the destruction of a contract it does not prohibit bankruptcy legislation affecting the creditor's remedy for its enforcement against the debtor's assets, or the measure of the creditor's participation therein, if the statutory provisions are consonant with a fair, reasonable, and equitable distribution of those assets. The law under consideration recognizes the petitioners' claim and permits it to share in the consideration to be distributed in reorganization .... It is incorrect to say that Congress took away all remedy under the lease. On the contrary, it gave a new and more certain remedy for a limited amount, in lieu of an old remedy inefficient and uncertain in its result. This is certainly not the taking of the landlord's property without due process."); <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=In_re_620_Church_St._Bldg._Corp.&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="In re 620 Church St. Bldg. Corp. (page does not exist)">In re 620 Church St. Bldg. Corp.</a></i>, 299 U.S. 24, 27 (1936) ("Here the controlling finding is not only that there was no equity in the property above the first mortgage but that petitioners' claims were appraised by the court as having 'no value.' There was no value to be protected. This finding ... [renders] the constitutional argument [that petitioners were deprived of property without due process of law] unavailing as petitioners have not shown injury.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-62"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-62">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Mauk v. United States</i>, 88 F.2d 557, 559 (9th Cir. 1937) ("Since appellant is not indicted under or accused of violating this provision, he has no interest or standing to question its validity. That question is not before us and will not be considered.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-63"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-63">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Morgan_v._Virginia" title="Morgan v. Virginia">Morgan v. Virginia</a></i>, 328 U.S. 373, 376–77 (1946) (person arrested for violating laws segregating buses was "a proper person to challenge the validity of th[e] statute as a burden on commerce"; even though she was a mere passenger and not, for example, a bus operator concerned about burdens on interstate commerce, "[i]f it is an invalid burden, the conviction under it would fail. The statute affects appellant as well as the transportation company. Constitutional protection against burdens on commerce is for her benefit on a criminal trial for violation of the challenged statute").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-64"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-64">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Downes_v._Bidwell" title="Downes v. Bidwell">Downes v. Bidwell</a></i>, 182 U.S. 244, 251 (1901) ("The Constitution was created by the people of the <i>United States</i>, as a union of <i>states</i>, to be governed solely by representatives of the <i>states</i>."); <i><a href="/wiki/In_re_Ross" title="In re Ross">In re Ross</a></i>, 140 U.S. 453, 464 (1891) ("By the constitution a government is ordained and established 'for the United States of America,' and not for countries outside of their limits. The guaranties it affords against accusation of capital or infamous crimes, except by indictment or presentment by a grand jury, and for an impartial trial by a jury when thus accused, apply only to citizens and others within the United States, or who are brought there for trial for alleged offenses committed elsewhere, and not to residents or temporary sojourners abroad.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-65"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-65">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">46 F. Supp. 296 (W.D. Wash. 1942), <i>aff'd</i>, 138 F.2d 909 (9th Cir. 1943).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-66"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-66">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Id.</i> at 296 ("Upon his arraignment the [trial] court appointed counsel for the petitioner who was without funds and was a member of the armed forces of the United States at Shanghai. The petitioner entered a plea of not guilty and demanded a trial before a jury of Americans, which motion was denied, and he was thereupon tried by the court. The petitioner contends that his constitutional rights were violated by his being denied a jury trial.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-67"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-67">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Id.</i> at 299 ("The petitioner does not claim that he was not afforded a fair trial aside from the denial of his demand for a jury. Inasmuch as unquestionably he obtained a trial more to his liking than he would have obtained in Shanghai in other than an American court sitting in Shanghai, and since the Supreme Court of this country has determined that the right of trial by jury does not obtain in an American court sitting in another country pursuant to treaty, it must be held that the allegations of petitioner's petition do not entitle him to release.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-68"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-68">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Downes</i>, 182 U.S. at 251 (emphases added). <i>Compare, e.g.</i>, <i><a href="/wiki/Dooley_v._United_States" class="mw-redirect" title="Dooley v. United States">Dooley v. United States</a></i>, 182 U.S. 222, 234 (1901) ("[A]fter the ratification of the treaty [with Spain] and the cession of the island to the United States[,] Porto Rico then ceased to be a foreign country ...."), <i>and <a href="/w/index.php?title=Municipality_of_Ponce_v._Roman_Catholic_Apostolic_Church&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Municipality of Ponce v. Roman Catholic Apostolic Church (page does not exist)">Municipality of Ponce v. Roman Catholic Apostolic Church</a></i>, 210 U.S. 296, 310 (1908) ("[I]n case of cession to the United States; laws of the ceded country inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States, so far as applicable, would cease to be of obligatory force; but otherwise the municipal laws of the acquired country continue." (quoting <i><a href="/w/index.php?title=Ortega_v._Lara&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Ortega v. Lara (page does not exist)">Ortega v. Lara</a></i>, 202 U.S. 339, 342 (1906))), <i>with Downes</i>, 182 U.S. at 287 ("[T]he island of Porto Rico is a territory appurtenant and belonging to the United States, but not a part of the United States ....").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-69"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-69">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">The fact that this discussion happens to talk mainly about Puerto Rico should not be understood to imply that the Supreme Court held that Puerto Rico was some sort of <i><a href="/wiki/Sui_generis" title="Sui generis">sui generis</a></i> jurisdiction. For example, in <i><a href="/wiki/Goetze_v._United_States" class="mw-redirect" title="Goetze v. United States">Goetze v. United States</a></i>, <a href="/wiki/List_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_cases,_volume_182" title="List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 182">182</a> <a href="/wiki/United_States_Reports" title="United States Reports">U.S.</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/182/221/">221</a> (1901), the Supreme Court held that this same reasoning (that a place could be under the <i>jurisdiction</i> of the United States, without being "part" of the United States) applied to <a href="/wiki/Hawaii" title="Hawaii">Hawaii</a> before it was admitted into the Union as a State.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-70"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-70">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">U.S. CONST. art. I, § 8, cl. 1.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-71"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-71">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>De Pass v. Bidwell</i>, 124 F. 615 (C.C.S.D.N.Y. 1903).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-72"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-72">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>See <a href="/wiki/United_States_v._Cruikshank" title="United States v. Cruikshank">United States v. Cruikshank</a></i>, 92 U.S. 542, 549–50 (1876) ("The separate governments of the separate States, bound together by the articles of confederation alone, <i>were not sufficient for the promotion of the general welfare of the people</i> in respect to foreign nations, or for their complete protection as citizens of the confederated States. For this reason, the people of the United States ... ordained and established the government of the United States, and defined its powers by a constitution, which they adopted as its fundamental law ...." (emphasis added)); <i><a href="/wiki/Texas_v._White" title="Texas v. White">Texas v. White</a></i>, 74 U.S. (7 Wall.) 700, 724–25 (1869) ("[The Union, which had existed since colonial times,] received definite form, and character, and sanction from the Articles of Confederation. By these the Union was solemnly declared to 'be perpetual.' And when these Articles were found to be inadequate to the exigencies of the country, the Constitution was ordained 'to form a more perfect Union.'"), <i>overruled on other grounds by <a href="/wiki/Morgan_v._United_States_(1885)" title="Morgan v. United States (1885)">Morgan v. United States</a></i>, 113 U.S. 476 (1885); <i><a href="/wiki/Martin_v._Hunter%27s_Lessee" title="Martin v. Hunter's Lessee">Martin v. Hunter's Lessee</a></i>, 14 U.S. (1 Wheat.) 304, 332 (1816) ("The constitution was for a new government, organized with new substantive powers, and not a mere supplementary charter to a government already existing.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-73"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-73">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFSAMUEL_JOHNSON,_LL.D." class="citation cs2">SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D., <i>A DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: IN WHICH THE WORDS ARE DEDUCED FROM THEIR ORIGINALS, AND ILLUSTRATED IN THEIR DIFFERENT SIGNIFICATIONS BY EXAMPLES FROM THE BEST WRITERS. TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED, A HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE, AND An ENGLISH GRAMMAR.</i> (THE SIXTH EDITION. city=LONDON. ed.)</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=A+DICTIONARY+OF+THE+ENGLISH+LANGUAGE%3A+IN+WHICH+THE+WORDS+ARE+DEDUCED+FROM+THEIR+ORIGINALS%2C+AND+ILLUSTRATED+IN+THEIR+DIFFERENT+SIGNIFICATIONS+BY+EXAMPLES+FROM+THE+BEST+WRITERS.+TO+WHICH+ARE+PREFIXED%2C+A+HISTORY+OF+THE+LANGUAGE%2C+AND+An+ENGLISH+GRAMMAR.&rft.edition=THE+SIXTH+EDITION.+city%3DLONDON.&rft.au=SAMUEL+JOHNSON%2C+LL.D.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APreamble+to+the+United+States+Constitution" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-74"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-74">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>See <a href="/w/index.php?title=Lane_Cnty._v._Oregon&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Lane Cnty. v. Oregon (page does not exist)">Lane Cnty. v. Oregon</a></i>, 74 U.S. (7 Wall.) 71, 76 (1869) ("The people, through [the Constitution], established a more perfect union by substituting a national government, acting, with ample power, directly upon the citizens, instead of the Confederate government, which acted with powers, greatly restricted, only upon the States.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-75"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-75">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/wiki/Legal_Tender_Cases" title="Legal Tender Cases">Legal Tender Cases</a></i>, 79 U.S. (12 Wall.) 457, 545 (1871) ("The Constitution was intended to frame a government as distinguished from a league or compact, a government supreme in some particulars over States and people."); <i>id.</i> at 554–55 (Bradley, J., concurring) ("The Constitution of the United States established a government, and not a league, compact, or partnership. It was constituted by the people. It is called a government.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-76"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-76">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFMeacham,_Jon.2018" class="citation cs2">Meacham, Jon. (May 8, 2018), <i>The Soul of America.</i>, Penquin/Random House.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Soul+of+America.&rft.pub=Penquin%2FRandom+House.&rft.date=2018-05-08&rft.au=Meacham%2C+Jon.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APreamble+to+the+United+States+Constitution" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-77"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-77">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>See Bush v. Orleans Parish Sch. Bd.</i>, 188 F. Supp. 916, 922–23 (E.D. La. 1960) ("Interposition is ... based on the proposition that the United States is a compact of states, any one of which may interpose its sovereignty against the enforcement within its borders of any decision of the Supreme Court or act of Congress, irrespective of the fact that the constitutionality of the act has been established by decision of the Supreme Court .... In essence, the doctrine denies the constitutional obligation of the states to respect those decisions of the Supreme Court with which they do not agree. The doctrine may have had some validity under the Articles of Confederation. On their failure, however, 'in Order to form a more perfect Union,' the people, not the states, of this country ordained and established the Constitution. <i>Thus the keystone of the interposition thesis, that the United States is a compact of states, was disavowed in the Preamble to the Constitution.</i>" (emphasis added) (footnote omitted) (citation omitted)), <i>aff'd mem.</i>, 365 U.S. 569 (1961). Although the State of Louisiana in <i>Bush</i> invoked a concept it called "interposition," it was sufficiently similar to the concept of "nullification" that the court used the latter, more familiar term in a fashion that clearly indicated it viewed the concepts as functionally interchangeable. <i>See id.</i> at 923 n.7 ("[E]ven the 'compact theory' [of the Constitution] does not justify <i>interposition</i>. Thus, Edward Livingston, ... though an adherent of th[e 'compact] theory['], strongly denied the right of a state to <i>nullify</i> federal law or the decisions of the federal courts." (emphases added)). <i>Compare Martin</i>, 14 U.S. (1 Wheat.) at 332 ("The confederation was a compact between states; and its structure and powers were wholly unlike those of the national government."), <i>with id.</i> ("The constitution was an act of the people of the United States to supersede the confederation, and not to be ingrafted on it, as a stock through which it was to receive life and nourishment.").</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-78"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-78">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="/w/index.php?title=White_v._Hart&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="White v. Hart (page does not exist)">White v. Hart</a></i>, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 646, 650 (1871) ("[The Constitution] assumed that the government and the Union which it created, and the States which were incorporated into the Union, would be indestructible and perpetual; and as far as human means could accomplish such a work, it intended to make them so.")</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-79"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-79">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Texas</i>, 74 U.S. (7 Wall.) at 725–26 ("[W]hen the[] Articles [of Confederation] were found to be inadequate to the exigencies of the country, the Constitution was ordained 'to form a more perfect Union.' It is difficult to convey the idea of indissoluble unity more clearly than by these words. What can be indissoluble if a perpetual Union, made more perfect, is not? ... The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union, composed of indestructible States. When, therefore, Texas became one of the United States, she entered into an indissoluble relation. All the obligations of perpetual union, and all the guaranties of republican government in the Union, attached at once to the State. The act which consummated her admission into the Union was something more than a compact; it was the incorporation of a new member into the political body. And it was final. The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration, or revocation, except through revolution, or through consent of the States."); <i>United States v. Cathcart</i>, 25 F. Cas. 344, 348 (C.C.S.D. Ohio 1864) (No. 14,756) ("The[ Supreme Court has] repudiate[d] emphatically the mischievous heresy that the union of the states under the constitution is a mere league or compact, from which a state, or any number of states, may withdraw at pleasure, not only without the consent of the other states, but against their will.").</span> </li> </ol></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1235681985">.mw-parser-output .side-box{margin:4px 0;box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid #aaa;font-size:88%;line-height:1.25em;background-color:var(--background-color-interactive-subtle,#f8f9fa);display:flow-root}.mw-parser-output .side-box-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output .side-box-text{padding:0.25em 0.9em}.mw-parser-output .side-box-image{padding:2px 0 2px 0.9em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .side-box-imageright{padding:2px 0.9em 2px 0;text-align:center}@media(min-width:500px){.mw-parser-output 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.navbox{display:none!important}}</style></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="Gouverneur_Morris441" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks hlist mw-collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="3"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239400231"><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Gouverneur_Morris" title="Template:Gouverneur Morris"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Gouverneur_Morris" title="Template talk:Gouverneur Morris"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Gouverneur_Morris" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Gouverneur Morris"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="Gouverneur_Morris441" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/Gouverneur_Morris" title="Gouverneur Morris">Gouverneur Morris</a></div></th></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="3"><div> <ul><li><span class="nowrap"><a href="/wiki/United_States_Senator" class="mw-redirect" title="United States Senator">U.S. Senator from New York, 1800–1803</a></span></li> <li><span class="nowrap"><a href="/wiki/List_of_ambassadors_of_the_United_States_to_France" title="List of ambassadors of the United States to France">Minister to the Court of Versailles, 1792–1794</a></span></li> <li><span class="nowrap"><a href="/wiki/Second_Continental_Congress" title="Second Continental Congress">Second Continental Congress, 1778–1779</a></span></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States" title="Founding Fathers of the United States">United States<br />Founding events</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Articles_of_Confederation" title="Articles of Confederation">Signed, Articles of Confederation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Constitution_of_New_York" title="Constitution of New York">New York Constitution</a> (1777)</li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Wrote, Preamble to the United States Constitution</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Constitutional_Convention_(United_States)" title="Constitutional Convention (United States)">Co-wrote, signed,</a> <a href="/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_States" title="Constitution of the United States">United States Constitution</a></li></ul> </div></td><td class="noviewer navbox-image" rowspan="3" style="width:1px;padding:0 0 0 2px"><div><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Constitution_We_the_People.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Constitution_We_the_People.jpg/159px-Constitution_We_the_People.jpg" decoding="async" width="159" height="58" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Constitution_We_the_People.jpg/239px-Constitution_We_the_People.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Constitution_We_the_People.jpg/318px-Constitution_We_the_People.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1461" data-file-height="530" /></a></span></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Namesakes</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Gouverneur,_New_York" title="Gouverneur, New York">Town of Gouverneur, New York</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gouverneur_(village),_New_York" title="Gouverneur (village), New York">Village of Gouverneur, New York</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/SS_Gouverneur_Morris" title="SS Gouverneur Morris">SS <i>Gouverneur Morris</i></a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Related</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States" title="Founding Fathers of the United States">Founding Fathers</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gouverneur_Morris_Jr." title="Gouverneur Morris Jr.">Gouverneur Morris, Jr. (son)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lewis_Morris_(speaker)" title="Lewis Morris (speaker)">Lewis Morris (father)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lewis_Morris" title="Lewis Morris">Lewis Morris (brother)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Staats_Long_Morris" title="Staats Long Morris">Staats Long Morris (brother)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Richard_Morris_(New_York_judge)" title="Richard Morris (New York judge)">Richard Morris (brother)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lewis_Morris_(governor)" title="Lewis Morris (governor)">Lewis Morris (grandfather)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/A_More_Perfect_Union_(film)" title="A More Perfect Union (film)"><i>A More Perfect Union</i> (1989 film)</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table></div> <div class="navbox-styles"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236075235"></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="Constitution_of_the_United_States256" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks mw-collapsible expanded navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="2"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239400231"><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Constitution_of_the_United_States" title="Template:Constitution of the United States"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Constitution_of_the_United_States" title="Template talk:Constitution of the United States"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Constitution_of_the_United_States" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Constitution of the United States"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="Constitution_of_the_United_States256" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_States" title="Constitution of the United States">Constitution of the United States</a></div></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Articles</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Preamble</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_One_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article One of the United States Constitution">I</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article Two of the United States Constitution">II</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Three_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article Three of the United States Constitution">III</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Four_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article Four of the United States Constitution">IV</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Five_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article Five of the United States Constitution">V</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Six_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article Six of the United States Constitution">VI</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Seven_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Article Seven of the United States Constitution">VII</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/List_of_amendments_to_the_Constitution_of_the_United_States" title="List of amendments to the Constitution of the United States">Amendments</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" class="navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights" title="United States Bill of Rights">Bill of Rights</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="First Amendment to the United States Constitution">1</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Second Amendment to the United States Constitution">2</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Third_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Third Amendment to the United States Constitution">3</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution">4</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution">5</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sixth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution">6</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Seventh_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution">7</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Eighth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution">8</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ninth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution">9</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">10</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">1795–1804</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Eleventh_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution">11</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twelfth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution">12</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Reconstruction_Amendments" title="Reconstruction Amendments">Reconstruction</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">13</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">14</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fifteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">15</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">20th century</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Sixteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">16</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Seventeenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">17</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Eighteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">18</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution">19</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twentieth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution">20</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twenty-first_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution">21</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twenty-second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution">22</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twenty-third_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution">23</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twenty-fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution">24</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution">25</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twenty-sixth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution">26</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Twenty-seventh_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution">27</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/List_of_amendments_to_the_Constitution_of_the_United_States" title="List of amendments to the Constitution of the United States">Unratified</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Congressional_Apportionment_Amendment" title="Congressional Apportionment Amendment">Congressional Apportionment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Titles_of_Nobility_Amendment" title="Titles of Nobility Amendment">Titles of Nobility</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Corwin_Amendment" title="Corwin Amendment">Corwin Amendment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Child_Labor_Amendment" title="Child Labor Amendment">Child Labor</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment" title="Equal Rights Amendment">Equal Rights</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/District_of_Columbia_Voting_Rights_Amendment" title="District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment">District of Columbia Voting Rights</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/List_of_proposed_amendments_to_the_Constitution_of_the_United_States" title="List of proposed amendments to the Constitution of the United States">Proposed</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Balanced_budget_amendment" title="Balanced budget amendment">Balanced budget</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Blaine_Amendment" title="Blaine Amendment">Blaine amendment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Bricker_Amendment" title="Bricker Amendment">Bricker amendment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Campaign_finance_reform_amendment" title="Campaign finance reform amendment">Campaign finance reform</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Christian_amendment" title="Christian amendment">Christian amendment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Crittenden_Compromise" title="Crittenden Compromise">Crittenden Compromise</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Electoral_College_abolition_amendment" title="Electoral College abolition amendment">Electoral College abolition</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Equal_Opportunity_to_Govern_Amendment" title="Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment">Equal Opportunity to Govern</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Federal_Marriage_Amendment" title="Federal Marriage Amendment">Federal Marriage</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Flag_Desecration_Amendment" title="Flag Desecration Amendment">Flag Desecration</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Human_Life_Amendment" title="Human Life Amendment">Human Life</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Proposed_%22Liberty%22_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Proposed "Liberty" Amendment to the United States Constitution">"Liberty" amendment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ludlow_Amendment" title="Ludlow Amendment">Ludlow amendment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Parental_Rights_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Parental Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution">Parental Rights amendment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/School_Prayer_Amendment" title="School Prayer Amendment">School Prayer</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Single_subject_amendment" title="Single subject amendment">Single subject</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Victims%27_Rights_Amendment" title="Victims' Rights Amendment">Victims' Rights</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Convention_to_propose_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution">Convention to propose amendments</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/State_ratifying_conventions" title="State ratifying conventions">State ratifying conventions</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Formation</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="History of the United States Constitution">History</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Articles_of_Confederation" title="Articles of Confederation">Articles of Confederation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mount_Vernon_Conference" title="Mount Vernon Conference">Mount Vernon Conference</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Annapolis_Convention_(1786)" title="Annapolis Convention (1786)">Annapolis Convention</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Constitutional_Convention_(United_States)" title="Constitutional Convention (United States)">Philadelphia Convention</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Virginia_Plan" title="Virginia Plan">Virginia Plan</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/New_Jersey_Plan" title="New Jersey Plan">New Jersey Plan</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Connecticut_Compromise" title="Connecticut Compromise">Connecticut Compromise</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Three-fifths_Compromise" title="Three-fifths Compromise">Three-fifths Compromise</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Committee_of_Detail" title="Committee of Detail">Committee of Detail</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Framers" class="mw-redirect" title="Framers">List of Framers</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Signing_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Signing of the United States Constitution">Signing</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Printing_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Printing of the United States Constitution">Printing</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Independence_Hall" title="Independence Hall">Independence Hall</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Syng_inkstand" title="Syng inkstand">Syng inkstand</a></li></ul></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Federalist_Papers" title="The Federalist Papers">The Federalist Papers</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anti-Federalist_Papers" title="Anti-Federalist Papers">Anti-Federalist Papers</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Massachusetts_Compromise" title="Massachusetts Compromise">Massachusetts Compromise</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Virginia_Ratifying_Convention" title="Virginia Ratifying Convention">Virginia Ratifying Convention</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/New_York_Circular_Letter" title="New York Circular Letter">New York Circular Letter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hillsborough_Convention" title="Hillsborough Convention">Hillsborough Convention</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fayetteville_Convention" title="Fayetteville Convention">Fayetteville Convention</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ratification_of_the_United_States_Constitution_by_Rhode_Island" title="Ratification of the United States Constitution by Rhode Island">Rhode Island ratification</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Timeline_of_drafting_and_ratification_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Timeline of drafting and ratification of the United States Constitution">Drafting and ratification timeline</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/List_of_clauses_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="List of clauses of the United States Constitution">Clauses</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Admission_to_the_Union" title="Admission to the Union">Admission to the Union</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Appointments_Clause" title="Appointments Clause">Appointments</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Appropriations_bill_(United_States)" title="Appropriations bill (United States)">Appropriations</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Right_to_petition_in_the_United_States" title="Right to petition in the United States">Assemble and Petition Clause</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Assistance_of_Counsel_Clause" title="Assistance of Counsel Clause">Assistance of Counsel</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Case_or_Controversy_Clause" title="Case or Controversy Clause">Case or Controversy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Citizenship_Clause" title="Citizenship Clause">Citizenship</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Commerce_Clause" title="Commerce Clause">Commerce</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Interstate_compact" title="Interstate compact">Compact</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Compulsory_Process_Clause" title="Compulsory Process Clause">Compulsory Process</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Confrontation_Clause" title="Confrontation Clause">Confrontation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Congressional_power_of_enforcement" title="Congressional power of enforcement">Congressional enforcement</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Contingent_election" title="Contingent election">Contingent Elections</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Contract_Clause" title="Contract Clause">Contract</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Copyright_Clause" title="Copyright Clause">Copyright and Patent</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Double_Jeopardy_Clause" title="Double Jeopardy Clause">Double Jeopardy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Due_Process_Clause" title="Due Process Clause">Due Process</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Elections_clause" class="mw-redirect" title="Elections clause">Elections</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Engagements_Clause" title="Engagements Clause">Engagements</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Equal_Protection_Clause" title="Equal Protection Clause">Equal Protection</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Establishment_Clause" title="Establishment Clause">Establishment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Three_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Original_and_appellate_jurisdiction" title="Article Three of the United States Constitution">Exceptions</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Excessive_Bail_Clause" title="Excessive Bail Clause">Excessive Bail</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Ex_post_facto_law#United_States" title="Ex post facto law">Ex Post Facto</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Extradition_Clause" title="Extradition Clause">Extradition</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_Exercise_Clause" title="Free Exercise Clause">Free Exercise</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press_in_the_United_States" title="Freedom of the press in the United States">Freedom of the Press</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_the_United_States" title="Freedom of speech in the United States">Freedom of Speech</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fugitive_Slave_Clause" title="Fugitive Slave Clause">Fugitive Slave</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Full_Faith_and_Credit_Clause" title="Full Faith and Credit Clause">Full Faith and Credit</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Taxing_and_Spending_Clause#General_Welfare_Clause" title="Taxing and Spending Clause">General Welfare</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Guarantee_Clause" title="Guarantee Clause">Guarantee</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/United_States_congressional_apportionment" title="United States congressional apportionment">House Apportionment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Federal_impeachment_in_the_United_States" title="Federal impeachment in the United States">Impeachment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Import-Export_Clause" title="Import-Export Clause">Import-Export</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ineligibility_Clause" title="Ineligibility Clause">Ineligibility</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_One_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Section_8" title="Article One of the United States Constitution">Militia</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause_(United_States)" title="Natural-born-citizen clause (United States)">Natural-born citizen</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Necessary_and_Proper_Clause" title="Necessary and Proper Clause">Necessary and Proper</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/No_Religious_Test_Clause" title="No Religious Test Clause">No Religious Test</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Oath_of_office_of_the_president_of_the_United_States" title="Oath of office of the president of the United States">Oath or Affirmation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Original_jurisdiction_of_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States" title="Original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States">Original Jurisdiction</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Origination_Clause" title="Origination Clause">Origination</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Federal_pardons_in_the_United_States" title="Federal pardons in the United States">Pardon</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Postal_Clause" title="Postal Clause">Postal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Presentment_Clause" title="Presentment Clause">Presentment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College" title="United States Electoral College">Presidential Electors</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/United_States_presidential_line_of_succession" title="United States presidential line of succession">Presidential succession</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Privileges_and_Immunities_Clause" title="Privileges and Immunities Clause">Privileges and Immunities</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Privileges_or_Immunities_Clause" title="Privileges or Immunities Clause">Privileges or Immunities</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Recess_appointment" title="Recess appointment">Recess appointment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Clause_2:_Making_recommendations_to_Congress" title="Article Two of the United States Constitution">Recommendation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Self-incrimination" title="Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution">Self-Incrimination</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Speech_or_Debate_Clause" title="Speech or Debate Clause">Speech or Debate</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Speedy_Trial_Clause" title="Speedy Trial Clause">Speedy Trial</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Clause_1:_State_of_the_Union" title="Article Two of the United States Constitution">State of the Union</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Supremacy_Clause" title="Supremacy Clause">Supremacy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_One_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Section_9" title="Article One of the United States Constitution">Suspension</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Clause_5:_Caring_for_the_faithful_execution_of_the_law" title="Article Two of the United States Constitution">Take Care</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Eminent_domain" title="Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution">Takings</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Taxing_and_Spending_Clause" title="Taxing and Spending Clause">Taxing and Spending</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Article_Four_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Federal_property_and_the_Territorial_Clause" title="Article Four of the United States Constitution">Territorial</a></li> <li>Title of Nobility (<a href="/wiki/Foreign_Emoluments_Clause" title="Foreign Emoluments Clause">Foreign Emoluments</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Treaty_Clause" title="Treaty Clause">Treaty</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Jury_trial#United_States" title="Jury trial">Trial by Jury</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Vesting_Clauses" title="Vesting Clauses">Vesting</a> (<a href="/wiki/Legislative_Vesting_Clause" title="Legislative Vesting Clause">Legislative</a> / <a href="/wiki/Executive_Vesting_Clause" title="Executive Vesting Clause">Executive</a> / <a href="/wiki/Judicial_Vesting_Clause" title="Judicial Vesting Clause">Judicial</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Vicinage_Clause" title="Vicinage Clause">Vicinage</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/War_Powers_Clause" title="War Powers Clause">War Powers</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Interpretation</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Balance_of_power_(federalism)" class="mw-redirect" title="Balance of power (federalism)">Balance of powers</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Concurrent_powers" title="Concurrent powers">Concurrent powers</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Constitutional_law_of_the_United_States" title="Constitutional law of the United States">Constitutional law</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/United_States_constitutional_criminal_procedure" title="United States constitutional criminal procedure">Criminal procedure</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/United_States_constitutional_sentencing_law" title="United States constitutional sentencing law">Criminal sentencing</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dormant_Commerce_Clause" title="Dormant Commerce Clause">Dormant Commerce Clause</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Enumerated_powers_(United_States)" title="Enumerated powers (United States)">Enumerated powers</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Equal_footing" title="Equal footing">Equal footing</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Executive_privilege" title="Executive privilege">Executive privilege</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Implied_powers" title="Implied powers">Implied powers</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Incorporation_of_the_Bill_of_Rights" title="Incorporation of the Bill of Rights">Incorporation of the Bill of Rights</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Judicial_review_in_the_United_States" title="Judicial review in the United States">Judicial review</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nondelegation_doctrine#United_States" title="Nondelegation doctrine">Nondelegation doctrine</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Plenary_power" title="Plenary power">Plenary power</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Federal_preemption" title="Federal preemption">Preemption</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reserved_powers" title="Reserved powers">Reserved powers</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Saxbe_fix" title="Saxbe fix">Saxbe fix</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state_in_the_United_States" title="Separation of church and state in the United States">Separation of church and state</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Separation_of_powers_under_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Separation of powers under the United States Constitution">Separation of powers</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Symmetric_federalism" title="Symmetric federalism">Symmetric federalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tax_protester_constitutional_arguments" title="Tax protester constitutional arguments">Taxation power</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Unitary_executive_theory" title="Unitary executive theory">Unitary executive theory</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Framers" class="mw-redirect" title="Framers">Signatories</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Convention President</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/George_Washington" title="George Washington">George Washington</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">New Hampshire</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/John_Langdon_(politician)" title="John Langdon (politician)">John Langdon</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nicholas_Gilman" title="Nicholas Gilman">Nicholas Gilman</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Massachusetts</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Nathaniel_Gorham" title="Nathaniel Gorham">Nathaniel Gorham</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rufus_King" title="Rufus King">Rufus King</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Connecticut</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/William_Samuel_Johnson" title="William Samuel Johnson">William Samuel Johnson</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Roger_Sherman" title="Roger Sherman">Roger Sherman</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">New York</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton" title="Alexander Hamilton">Alexander Hamilton</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">New Jersey</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/William_Livingston" title="William Livingston">William Livingston</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/David_Brearley" title="David Brearley">David Brearley</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_Paterson_(judge)" title="William Paterson (judge)">William Paterson</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Jonathan_Dayton" title="Jonathan Dayton">Jonathan Dayton</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Pennsylvania</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin" title="Benjamin Franklin">Benjamin Franklin</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Thomas_Mifflin" title="Thomas Mifflin">Thomas Mifflin</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Robert_Morris_(financier)" title="Robert Morris (financier)">Robert Morris</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/George_Clymer" title="George Clymer">George Clymer</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Thomas_Fitzsimons" title="Thomas Fitzsimons">Thomas Fitzsimons</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Jared_Ingersoll" title="Jared Ingersoll">Jared Ingersoll</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/James_Wilson_(Founding_Father)" title="James Wilson (Founding Father)">James Wilson</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gouverneur_Morris" title="Gouverneur Morris">Gouverneur Morris</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Delaware</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/George_Read_(American_politician,_born_1733)" title="George Read (American politician, born 1733)">George Read</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gunning_Bedford_Jr." title="Gunning Bedford Jr.">Gunning Bedford Jr.</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/John_Dickinson" title="John Dickinson">John Dickinson</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Richard_Bassett_(Delaware_politician)" title="Richard Bassett (Delaware politician)">Richard Bassett</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Jacob_Broom" title="Jacob Broom">Jacob Broom</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Maryland</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/James_McHenry" title="James McHenry">James McHenry</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Daniel_of_St._Thomas_Jenifer" title="Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer">Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Daniel_Carroll" title="Daniel Carroll">Daniel Carroll</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Virginia</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/John_Blair_Jr." title="John Blair Jr.">John Blair</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/James_Madison" title="James Madison">James Madison</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">North Carolina</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/William_Blount" title="William Blount">William Blount</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Richard_Dobbs_Spaight" title="Richard Dobbs Spaight">Richard Dobbs Spaight</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hugh_Williamson" title="Hugh Williamson">Hugh Williamson</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">South Carolina</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/John_Rutledge" title="John Rutledge">John Rutledge</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Charles_Cotesworth_Pinckney" title="Charles Cotesworth Pinckney">Charles Cotesworth Pinckney</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Charles_Pinckney_(governor)" title="Charles Pinckney (governor)">Charles Pinckney</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pierce_Butler_(American_politician)" title="Pierce Butler (American politician)">Pierce Butler</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Georgia</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/William_Few" title="William Few">William Few</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Abraham_Baldwin" title="Abraham Baldwin">Abraham Baldwin</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Convention Secretary</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/William_Jackson_(secretary)" title="William Jackson (secretary)">William Jackson</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Related</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/Notes_of_Debates_in_the_Federal_Convention_of_1787" title="Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787">Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Jacob_Shallus" title="Jacob Shallus">Jacob Shallus</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_Lambert_(writer)" title="William Lambert (writer)">William Lambert</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Bibliography_of_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Bibliography of the United States Constitution">Bibliography of the United States Constitution</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States" title="Founding Fathers of the United States">Founding Fathers of the United States</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Display<br />and legacy</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/National_Archives_Building" title="National Archives Building">National Archives</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Charters_of_Freedom" title="Charters of Freedom">Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Independence_Mall_(Philadelphia)" class="mw-redirect" title="Independence Mall (Philadelphia)">Independence Mall</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Constitution_Day_and_Citizenship_Day" title="Constitution Day and Citizenship Day">Constitution Day and Citizenship Day</a></li> <li><a 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