COMPILED BY

GEORGE GORDON PAYNE

Under the Direction of

HON. CHARLES CURTIS

Chairman of the Committee on Rules

and

HON. FRANK B. BRANDEGEE

Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary

United States Senate

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That five thousand additional copies of the revised annotated Constitution be printed for the use of the Congress, one thousand five hundred copies for the Senate and three thousand five hundred copies for the House of Representatives, and that the Senate Committee on the Judiciary be, and it is hereby, authorized to employ a competent person to assist in bringing the same up to date, his compensation to be paid out of the contingent fund of the Senate: Provided, That the Public Printer shall print not more than ten thousand additional copies of said revised annotated Constitution and offer the same for sale at the cost of printing and binding, plus 10 per centum, to persons who agree not to resell or distribute the same for profit. Passed the Senate, June 3, 1924. Attest:

GEORGE A. SANDERSON,

Secretary.

Passed the House of Representatives June 5, 1924.

Attest:

WM. TYLER PAGE,

Clerk.

PREFACE.

The Constitution which was printed as a public document,' pursuant to a Senate resolution of April 15, 1913, contained, under each clause, a chronological list of citations of Supreme Court casesnothing more. The cases treated of the clauses of the Constitution under which they were respectively cited, but it may readily be appreciated that in order to locate a particular point under such large and important clauses-as, for instance, the commerce clause, the contracts clause, or the due process clause-it would be necessary to examine many hundreds of cases.

The present undertaking has probably gone beyond the scope of the work at first contemplated, but it was felt that inasmuch as it was necessary to make a check of the cases in any event it would greatly add to the value of the work to subdivide the subject matter of the clauses of the Constitution into appropriate headings and subheadings, and, while examining the cases to verify their applicability, to make a brief statement of the point involved as applying to that particular clause of the Constitution. This has been done, and, where it seemed necessary, or where the language of the court was so explicit on the point, quotations have been given from the decisions. The annotation is preceded by the full, continuous text of the Constitution, and the literal print, as published by the State Department, with all the original spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, has been used. In the "Notes" which follow, the clauses of the Constitution have been repeated, for convenient reference, immediately following the articles and section or clause number. There then follows, in connection with each clause under which a great many cases have been decided, a list of the leading cases. The analytical index-digest at the end of the document will be found. helpful in locating the subjects of the annotation, and its use is recommended.

This compilation, then, is an annotation of the decisions of the United States Supreme Court involving constitutional questions "collated under each separate provision." It contains all such decisions from the first term of the court in 1790 up to and including the October term of 1923. It is perhaps unreasonable to hope that the work is perfect and free from error, although every effort has been made to render it so. Every statement, citation, name, and number has been diligently verified, and the proof reading has been carefully and painstakingly done.

The work is modeled on the lines of the annotation contained in Federal Statutes Annotated, although that admirable work goes

'S. Doc. 12, 63d Cong., 1st sess.

Sce Cong. Rec., Dec. 7, 1921, p. 93, for discussion as to annotations.