Constitutionality of a Federal Antilynching Law: Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Sixty-seventh Congress, First Session [on] H.R. 13

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U.S. Government Printing Office, 1921 - 62 páginas

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Página 42 - subject only to the Constitution of the United States," as interpreted by the Supreme Court.
Página 38 - It is obvious that the government of the Union, in the exercise of its express powers, that, for example, of regulating commerce with foreign nations and among the states, may use means that may also be employed by a State in the exercise of its acknowledged powers, that, for example, of regulating commerce within the state.
Página 55 - We hold it to be an incontrovertible principle that the government of the United States may, by means of physical force, exercised through its official agents, execute on every foot of American soil the powers and functions that belong to it.
Página 54 - ... whatever may have been the intent of the ordinances as adopted, they are applied by the public authorities, charged with their administration, and thus representing the State itself, with a mind so unequal and oppressive as to amount to a practical denial by the State of that equal protection of the laws which is secured to the petitioners, as to all other persons, by the broad and benign provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Página 35 - That the United States lacks the police power, and that this was reserved to the States by the 10th amendment, is true. But it is nonetheless true that when the United States exerts any of the powers conferred upon it by the Constitution, no valid objection can be based upon the fact that such exercise may be attended by the same incidents which attend the exercise by a State of its police power, or that it may tend to accomplish a similar purpose.
Página 37 - A state acts by its legislative, its executive, or its judicial authorities. It can act in no other way. The constitutional provision, therefore, must mean that no agency of the state or of the officers or agents by whom its powers are exerted, shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Página 46 - We are not at liberty to inquire into the motives of the legislature. We can only examine into its power under the Constitution ; and the power to make exceptions to the appellate jurisdiction of this court is given by express words.
Página 45 - ... denied to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws; when, on the contrary, the laws of the state, as enacted by its legislative, and construed by its judicial, and administered by its executive departments, recognize and protect the rights of all persons, — the amendment imposes no duty and confers no power upon congress.
Página 37 - ... add anything to the rights which one citizen has under the Constitution against another. The equality of the rights of citizens is a principle of republicanism. Every republican government is in duty bound to protect all its citizens in the enjoyment of this principle, if within its power.
Página 45 - Whatever legislation is appropriate, that is, adapted to carry out the objects the amendments have in view, whatever tends to enforce submission to the prohibitions they contain, and to secure to all persons the enjoyment of perfect equality of civil rights and the equal protection of the laws against State denial or invasion, if not prohibited, is brought within the domain of congressional power.

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