Section 2. This Article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.
ACTS OF CONGRESS HELD UNCONSTITUTIONAL IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
1. Act of September 24, 1789 (1 Stat. 81, sec. 13, in part).
Provision that "* * * [the Supreme Court] shall have power to issue * * * writs of mandamus, in cases warranted by the principles and usages of law, to any * * * persons holding office, under authority of the United States" as applied to the issue of mandamus to the Secretary of State requiring him to deliver to plaintiff a commission (duly signed by the President) as justice of the peace in the District of Columbia, held an attempt to enlarge the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, fixed by article III, section 2.
Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cr. 137 (February 24, 1803).
2. Act of February 20, 1812 (2 Stat. 677, ch. 22).
Provisions authorizing land officers to examine into "validity of claims to land * * * which are derived from confirmations made * * * by the governors of the Northwest * * * territory", held not to authorize annulment of title confirmed by Governor St. Clair in 1799, nor to validate a subsequent sale and patent by the United States. (See [Fifth Amendment].)
Reichert v. Felps, 6 Wallace 160 (March 16, 1868).