Leser v. Garnett
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''Leser v. Garnett'', 258 U.S. 130 (1922), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Nineteenth Amendment had been constitutionally established..


Prior history

On August 26, 1920, the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was certified by Secretary of State
Bainbridge Colby Bainbridge Colby (December 22, 1869 – April 11, 1950) was an American politician and attorney who was a co-founder of the United States Progressive Party and Woodrow Wilson's last Secretary of State. Colby was a Republican until he helped co-f ...
. The amendment reads as follows:


Case

The Supreme Court granted certiorari to decide "Whether the Nineteenth Amendment has become part of the federal Constitution." The plaintiffs disputed the constitutionality of the amendment through three claims: * The power to amend the Constitution did not cover this amendment, due to its character. * Several states that had ratified the amendment had constitutions that prohibited women from voting, rendering them unable to ratify an amendment to the contrary. * The ratifications of
Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
and
West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...
were invalid, because they were adopted without following the rules of legislative procedure in place in those states. In a unanimous decision, written by Justice Louis Brandeis, the court addressed each objection in turn. In response to the first objection, the court declared that since the Fifteenth Amendment had been accepted as valid for more than fifty years, and dealt with a similar matter (in this case, that voting rights could not be denied on account of race), it could not be argued that the new amendment was invalid due to its subject matter. In response to the second objection, the court decided that when the state legislatures ratified the amendment, they were operating in a federal capacity as laid down in the Constitution, a role which "transcends any limitations sought to be imposed by the people of a state." As far as the ratifications of Tennessee and West Virginia were concerned, the court remarked that the additional ratifications of
Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...
and
Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
after the proclamation of the amendment rendered the point
moot Moot may refer to: * Mootness, in American law: a point where further proceedings have lost practical significance; whereas in British law: the issue remains debatable * Moot court, an activity in many law schools where participants take part in s ...
, but the court also addressed the substance of the objection. The court found that as the Secretary of State had accepted the ratifications by the legislatures of the two states as valid, they were valid, effectively ruling the matter as non-
justiciable Justiciability concerns the limits upon legal issues over which a court can exercise its judicial authority. It includes, but is not limited to, the legal concept of standing, which is used to determine if the party bringing the suit is a party ...
.


See also

*
List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 258 This is a list of cases reported in volume 258 of ''United States Reports'', decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1922. Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of volume 258 U.S. The Supreme Court is established by Ar ...


References


External links

* *See photo .tiff files of all decisions as the case progressed through the courts: http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5300/sc5339/000041/000000/000012/unrestricted/021064.tif * {{Suffrage 1922 in United States case law United States gender discrimination case law United States Supreme Court cases United States Nineteenth Amendment case law United States Constitution Article Five case law United States Supreme Court cases of the Taft Court