Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States on Constitutional Questions, 1911–1914

Extract

As the last summary in the Review of the decisions of the United States Supreme Court on constitutional questions included the cases at the October term, 1910–1911, it may be desirable now under a few headings to group the cases which seem to be of fundamental importance decided during the three judicial years commencing in 1911 and concluding in 1914. Without any numerical summary (which would be difficult and of little value in view of the fact that many cases in which constitutional questions are raised by counsel and briefly referred to by the court are of no significance as indicating any new development or application of constitutional provisions) it may safely be said that the number of important cases in which difficult constitutional questions have been decided has during this period been unusually large. As the activity of Congress in pushing its legislative power constantly closer to the line of its constitutional authority increases, the number of cases in which the limits of such authority are necessarily involved must also increase. But it may further be suggested by way of rough generalization that the principles of constitutional law relating to other subjects on the boundary line between state and federal legislative powers has become reasonably well established, and comparatively few cases of importance relating to their application have recently been decided by the Supreme Court.