Downes v. Bidwell

Citations

• 182 U.S. 244
• 21 S. Ct. 770
• 45 L. Ed. 1088
• 1901 U.S. LEXIS 286

Syllabus

<p>By Mr. Justice Brown, in announcing the conclusion and judgment of the court.</p> <p>The Circuit Courts have jurisdiction, regardless of amount, of actions against a collector of customs for duties exacted and paid under protest upon merchandise alleged not to have been imported.</p> <p>The island of Porto Rico is not a part of the United States within that provision of the Constitution which declares that “ all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”</p> <p>There is a clear distinction between such prohibitions of the Constitution' as go to the very root of the power of Congress to act at all, irrespective of time or place, and such as are operative only throughout the United States, or among the several States.</p> <p>A long continued and uniform interpretation, put by the executive and legislative departments of the government, upon a clause in the Constitution should be followed b.y the judicial department, unless such interpretation be manifestly contrary to its letter or spirit.</p> <p>By Mr. Justice White, with whom Mr. Jdstice Shibas and Mr. Justice McKenna concurred.</p> <p>The government of the United States was born of the Constitution, and all powers which it enjoys or may exercise must be either derived expressly or by implication from that instrument. Ever then, when an act of any department is challenged, because not warranted by the Constitution, the existence of the authority is to be ascertained by determining whether the power has been conferred by the Constitution, either in express terms or by lawful implication, to be drawn from the express authority conferred or deduced as an attribute which legitimately inheres in the nature of the powers given, and which flows from the character of the government established by the Constitution. In other words, whilst confined to its constitutional orbit, the government of the United States is supreme within its lawful sphere.</p> <p>Every function of the government be