The original editor's comments are enclosed in square brackets []. Notes unique to this edition are also enclosed in square brackets, but are preceded by the words "Transcriber's Note". A complete list of all changes made to the text is included at the end of the file. Variations in spelling were left as in the original. 82d Congress } SENATE { Document _2d Session_ } { No. 170 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION Annotations of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 30, 1952 Prepared by the Legislative Reference Service, Library of Congress EDWARD S. CORWIN, Editor [Illustration] United States Government Printing Office Washington: 1953 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington 25 D.C.--Price $6.25 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 69 JOINT RESOLUTION To prepare a revised edition of the Annotated Constitution of the United States of America as published in 1938 as Senate Document 232 of the Seventy-fourth Congress. Whereas the Annotated Constitution of the United States of America published in 1938 as Senate Document 232, Seventy-fourth Congress, has served a very useful purpose by supplying essential information in one volume and at a very reasonable price; and Whereas Senate Document 232 is no longer available at the Government Printing Office; and Whereas the reprinting of this document without annotations for the last ten years is now considered appropriate: Now, therefore, be it _Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled_, That the Librarian of Congress is hereby authorized and directed to have the Annotated Constitution of the United States of America, published in 1938, revised and extended to include annotations of decisions of the Supreme Court prior to January 1, 1948, construing the several provisions of the Constitution correlated under each separate provision, and to have the said revised document printed at the Government Printing Office. Three thousand copies shall be printed, of which two thousand two hundred copies shall be for the use of the House of Representatives and eight hundred copies for the use of the Senate. Sec. 2. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated for carrying out the provisions of this Act, with respect to the preparation but not including printing, the sum of $35,000 to remain available until expended. Approved June 17, 1947. PREFACE By Honorable Alexander Wiley _Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee_ To the Members and Committees of the Congress, the Constitution is more than a revered abstraction; it is an everyday companion and counsellor. Into it, the Founding Fathers breathed the spirit of life; through every subsequent generation, that spirit has remained vital. In more than a century and a half of cataclysmic events, the Constitution has successfully withstood test after test. No crisis--foreign or domestic--has impaired its vitality. The system of checks and balances which it sets up has enabled the growing nation to adapt itself to every need and at the same time to checkrein every bid for arbitrary power. And meantime America itself has evolved dynamically and dramatically. The humble 13 colonies, carved out of the wilderness in the 18th Century, emerged in the 20th Century as leader of earth--industrial--military--political--economic--psychological. Yet the broad outline of the Supreme Law remains today fundamentally intact. It is small wonder that W.E. Gladstone described the Constitution as "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man." He knew, as should we, that the Constitution's words, its phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and sections still possess a miraculous quality--a mingled flexibility and...