Our Changing Constitution

Produced by John Hagerson, Kevin Handy, Linda Cantoni, and the PG
Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1922
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
Citizens of the United States are wont to think of their form of government, a political system based on a written constitution, as something fixed and stable. In reality, it is undergoing a profound change. The idea which constituted its most distinctive feature, and in the belief of many represents America's most valuable contribution to the science of government, is being forgotten. Formed to be an indestructible Union composed of indestructible states, our dual system is losing its duality. The states are fading out of the picture.
The aim of this volume is to point out the change and discuss some of its aspects. A few chapters have already appeared in print. Our Changing Constitution and Is the Federal Corporation Tax Constitutional? were published in the Outlook . The Corporation Tax Decision appeared in the Yale Law Journal . Can Congress Tax the Income from State and Municipal Bonds? was printed in the New York Evening Post . All of these have been more or less revised and some new matter has been added.
The American Constitution, its origin and contents. Wherein its novelty and greatness lay. Importance of maintaining the equilibrium established between national and state power. View of John Fiske.
Place of the Court in the constitutional scheme. Its most important function. Personnel of the Court. Its power moral rather than physical. Its chief weapon the power to declare legislative acts unconstitutional. Limitations on this power—political questions; necessity of an actual controversy; abuses of legislative power. Erroneous popular impressions. Impairment of the constitutional conscience.
Change in popular attitude toward the Constitution. Causes of the change (growth of national consciousness, wars, foreign relations, influence of later immigrants and their descendants, desire to obtain federal appropriations, economic development, railroads, free trade among the states). Methods by which change has been put into effect (constitutional amendment, treaties, federal legislation under cover of power to regulate commerce and lay taxes). Attitude of the Supreme Court. Differences of opinion in the Court.