Newberry v. United States

Citations

• 256 U.S. 232
• 41 S. Ct. 469
• 65 L. Ed. 913
• 1921 U.S. LEXIS 1632

Syllabus

<p>1. Section*8 of the “Federal Corrupt Practices Act ” (June 25,,1910, c. 392, 36 Stat. 822; amended August 19, 1911, c. 33, 37 Stat. 25), which undertakes to limit the amount of money which any candidate for the office of Representative in Congress or of United States Senator shall give, contribute, expend, use, or promise, or cause to be given, contributed, expended, used, or promised, in procuring his nomination or election, is unconstitutional. So held, as applied to a primary election of candidates for a seat in the Senate. P. 247.</p> <p>2. The power of Congress over elections of Senators and Representatives has its source in § 4 of Art. I of the Constitution, which provides: “The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of chusing Senators.” P. 247.</p> <p>3. An indefinite, undefined power in Congress over elections of Senators and Representatives, not derived from Art. I, § 4, cannot be inferred from the fact that the offices were created by the Constitution, or by assuming that the Government must be free from any control by the States over matters affecting the choice of its officers, — a false assumption, ignoring powers clearly vested in the States under the Constitution and the federal, character of the Government. P. 249.</p> <p>•4. Elections, within the original intendment of §4 of Art. I, were those wherein Senators should be chosen by legislatures and Representatives by voters possessmg “the qualifications requisite for ■ electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.” Art. I, §§ 2 and 3. P. 250.'</p> <p>5. The Seventeenth Amendment neither announced nor requires a new meaning of election, and the word now has the same general significance as it did when the Constitution came into existence,— final choice of an officer by the duly qualifie