The Practical Scope of the Amendment

Abstract

The Congressional programme for the scope of the Amendment came to a sudden end at the hands of the Supreme Court. Within the short period intervening its adoption and the first cases involving its interpretation, the weight of public opinion had already repudiated the governmental ideal of the Radicals. The destinies of the measure having now been left to the Supreme Court, that tribunal attempted to set forth in general terms its future sphere of activity. This was done not so much by way of positive definition as by protests against certain classes of litigation under the Amendment. This original programme of the Court has, by the logic of events, also failed.