Hawke v. Smith (No. 1)

Citations

• 253 U.S. 221
• 40 S. Ct. 495
• 64 L. Ed. 871
• 1920 U.S. LEXIS 1416
• 10 A.L.R. 1504

Syllabus

<p>Under the Constitution, Art. V, a proposed amendment can be ratified by two methods only,— by the legislatures of three-fourths of the States or by conventions in three-fourths of the States, the choice of method being left to Congress. P. 226.</p> <p>The term “legislatures” as used here and elsewhere in the Constitution, means tbe deliberative, representative bodies that make the laws for the people of the respective States; the Constitution makes no provision for action upon such proposals by the people directly. P. 227.</p> <p>The function of a state legislature in ratifying- a proposed amendment to the Federal Constitution, like the function of Congress in proposing such amendments, is a federal function, derived not from the people of that State but from the Constitution. P. 230.</p> <p>The ratification of a proposed amendment to the Federal Constitution by the legislature of a State is not an act of legislation, in the proper sense of the word; it is but the expression of the assent of the State to the proposed amendment. P. 229. Davis v. Hildebrant, 241 IT. S. 565, distinguished.</p> <p>The action of the General Assembly of Ohio ratifying the proposed Eighteenth Amendment cannot be referred to the electors of the State, the provisions of the state constitution requiring such a referendum being inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States. P. 231.</p>