United States v. Samples, 258 F. 479 (W.D. Mo. 1919)
Holding
Protection of a State's quasi-sovereign right to regulate the taking of game is an insufficient jurisdictional basis, apart from any pecuniary interest, for a bill by a State to enjoin enforcement of federal regulations over the subject alleged to be unconstitutional. Treaties made by the federal government are supreme over any state concerns about such treaties having abrogated any states' rights arising under the Tenth Amendment. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 is constitutional.
In a 7–2 decision, the Court upheld the Act as constitutional, since it was enacted pursuant to the federal government's express power to make treaties and to enact laws pursuant to treaties, which the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution elevates above state law. The Court also reasoned that protecting wildlife was in the national interest and could only be accomplished through federal action.[1]
Missouri is also notable for Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes's articulation of the legal theory of a "living constitution", which purports that the Constitution changes over time and adapts to new circumstances without formal amendments.[3]
Facts
Congress had previously passed laws regulating the hunting of migratory waterfowl on the basis that such birds naturally migrated across state and international borders freely, and hence the regulation of the harvest of such birds could not realistically be considered to be province solely of individual states or groups of states. However, several states objected to this theory, and twice successfully sued to have such laws declared unconstitutional, on the premise that the U.S. Constitution gave Congress no enumerated power to regulate migratory bird hunting, thereby leaving the matter to states pursuant to the Tenth Amendment.[4]
Disgruntled with these rulings, Congress then empowered the State Department to negotiate with the United Kingdom—which at the time still largely handled the foreign relations of Canada—a treaty pertaining to this issue. The treaty was subsequently ratified and came into force, requiring the federal government to enact laws regulating the capturing, killing, or selling of protected migratory birds, an obligation that it fulfilled in the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.[5]
The state of Missouri requested that U.S. Game Warden Ray Holland be enjoined from implementing the Act, arguing that it was "an unconstitutional interference with the rights reserved to the States by the Tenth Amendment, and [...] the acts of the defendant [...] invade the sovereign right of the State and contravene its will manifested in statutes."[2] Additionally, Missouri claimed that states had an "absolute" right to regulate game within their borders as recognized by "ancient law, feudal law, and the common law in England" as an "attribute of government and a necessary incident of sovereignty."[6] The state also warned that permitting the federal government to regulate birds could set a dangerous precedent for government to broaden its power over other domains for which it had no enumerated constitutional power.
Judgment
In an opinion authored by Justice Holmes, the Supreme Court dismissed Missouri's demand for an injunction against the federal government, holding that protection of a state's quasi-sovereign right to regulate game is insufficient jurisdictional basis to enjoin enforcement of the laws at issue.
The Supreme Court ruled the Migratory Bird Treaty Act constitutional, relying primarily on article VI, clause 2, sometimes known as the "Supremacy Clause", which establishes that treaties are the "supreme law of the land" and supersede state law accordingly. The ruling implied that treaty provisions were not subject to questioning by the states under the process of judicial review.
In the course of his judgment, Justice Holmes remarked on the nature of the Constitution as an "organism" that must be interpreted in contemporaneous terms:
With regard to that we may add that when we are dealing with words that also are a constituent act, like the Constitution of the United States, we must realize that they have called into life a being the development of which could not have been foreseen completely by the most gifted of its begetters. It was enough for them to realize or to hope that they had created an organism; it has taken a century and has cost their successors much sweat and blood to prove that they created a nation. The case before us must be considered in the light of our whole experience and not merely in that of what was said a hundred years ago. The treaty in question does not contravene any prohibitory words to be found in the Constitution. The only question is whether it is forbidden by some invisible radiation from the general terms of the Tenth Amendment. We must consider what this country has become in deciding what that amendment has reserved.[7]
Many legal analysts have argued that the decision implies that Congress and the President can essentially amend the Constitution by means of treaties with other countries.[8][9] These concerns came to a head in the 1950s with the Bricker Amendment, a series of proposed amendments that would have placed restrictions on the scope and ratification of treaties and executive agreements entered into by the United States. More recently, a similar provision has been proposed as the fourth article of the Bill of Federalism, a list of ten proposed amendments drafted by law professor Randy Barnett.
Legal scholar Judith Resnik contests the implication that Missouri allows for treaties to expand the federal government's power, arguing that in the decades since the decision, courts have ruled that the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution provides Congress with broader regulatory power without the need for a treaty.[2]
Jurist and law professor Thomas Healy has suggested that Missouri may not be good law, meaning more recent decisions could overturn the ruling and establish new limits on the Treaty power.[10]
See also
Louis Marshall, New York lawyer who submitted an amicus curae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court on Missouri v. Holland on behalf of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks
Bricker Amendment, one of several unsuccessful attempts during the 1950s to restrict the ability of the United States government to expand its power via treaties
Reid v. Covert, a 1957 case which stated that no treaty can come in direct violation of the United States Constitution, a partial limitation of the ability of the United States to use treaties
Medellín v. Texas (2008), U.S. Supreme Court case that casts some doubt on how broadly Missouri v. Holland can be applied. Texas had ignored obligations of the United States under a convention, despite a relevant presidential order and a finding of the International Court of Justice. The individual defendant (who had been sentenced to death) was held by the courts, including the Supreme Court, not to have any personal rights to challenge his conviction because of this breach of the United States' international obligations
↑ Healy, T. (1998), "Is" Missouri v. Holland" Still Good Law? Federalism and the Treaty Power", Columbia Law Review, Columbia Law Review Association, Inc., 98 (7): 1726–1756, doi:10.2307/1123464, JSTOR1123464
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the national frame and constraints of government. The Constitution's first three articles embody the doctrine of the separation of powers, whereby the federal government is divided into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress ; the executive, consisting of the president and subordinate officers ; and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts. Article IV, Article V, and Article VI embody concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments, the states in relationship to the federal government, and the shared process of constitutional amendment. Article VII establishes the procedure subsequently used by the 13 states to ratify it. The Constitution of the United States is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force in the world today.
Article Three of the United States Constitution establishes the judicial branch of the U.S. federal government. Under Article Three, the judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as lower courts created by Congress. Article Three empowers the courts to handle cases or controversies arising under federal law, as well as other enumerated areas. Article Three also defines treason.
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, five major self-governing territories, several island possessions, and the federal district and national capital of Washington, D.C., where most of the federal government is based.
The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution. The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes". Courts and commentators have tended to discuss each of these three areas of commerce as a separate power granted to Congress. It is common to see the individual components of the Commerce Clause referred to under specific terms: the Foreign Commerce Clause, the Interstate Commerce Clause, and the Indian Commerce Clause.
Randy Evan Barnett is an American legal scholar. He serves as the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University, where he teaches constitutional law and contracts, and is the director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution.
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (MBTA), codified at 16 U.S.C. §§ 703–712, is a United States federal law, first enacted in 1918 to implement the convention for the protection of migratory birds between the United States and Canada. The statute makes it unlawful without a waiver to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, or sell nearly 1,100 species of birds listed therein as migratory birds. The statute does not discriminate between live or dead birds and also grants full protection to any bird parts including feathers, eggs, and nests. A March 2020 update of the list increased the number of species to 1,093.
The enumerated powers of the United States Congress are the powers granted to the federal government of the United States by the United States Constitution. Most of these powers are listed in Article I, Section 8.
The Bricker Amendment is the collective name of a number of slightly different proposed amendments to the United States Constitution considered by the United States Senate in the 1950s. None of these amendments ever passed Congress. Each of them would require explicit congressional approval, especially for executive agreements that did not require the Senate's two-thirds approval for treaty. They are named for their sponsor, conservative Republican Senator John W. Bricker of Ohio, who distrusted the exclusive powers of the president to involve the United States beyond the wishes of Congress.
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The Treaty Clause of the United States Constitution establishes the procedure for ratifying international agreements. It empowers the President as the primary negotiator of agreements between the United States and other countries, and holds that the advice and consent of a two-thirds supermajority of the Senate renders a treaty binding with the force of federal law.
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The constitutional law of the United States is the body of law governing the interpretation and implementation of the United States Constitution. The subject concerns the scope of power of the United States federal government compared to the individual states and the fundamental rights of individuals. The ultimate authority upon the interpretation of the Constitution and the constitutionality of statutes, state and federal, lies with the Supreme Court of the United States.
The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution of the United States establishes that the Constitution, federal laws made pursuant to it, and treaties made under its authority, constitute the "supreme Law of the Land", and thus take priority over any conflicting state laws. It provides that state courts are bound by, and state constitutions subordinate to, the supreme law. However, federal statutes and treaties must be within the parameters of the Constitution; that is, they must be pursuant to the federal government's enumerated powers, and not violate other constitutional limits on federal power, such as the Bill of Rights—of particular interest is the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that the federal government has only those powers that are delegated to it by the Constitution.
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