Note 257 — ARTICLE III (continued 2)

Ibid. 422-423. In Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 1 Wheat. 304 (1816), Justice Story had traversed some of these same grounds. He, too, began with the general assumptions that the Constitution was established by the people of the United States and not by the States in their sovereign capacities, that the Constitution is to be construed liberally, and that the National Government is supreme in relation to its objects; and had concluded that the Supreme Court had authority to review State court decisions under the express provisions of articles III and VI, and also from the necessity that final decision must rest somewhere and from the importance and necessity of uniformity of decisions interpreting the Constitution. Many years later in Ableman v. Booth, 21 How. 506, 514-523 (1859), where the Wisconsin Supreme Court, like the Virginia Courts earlier, had declared an act of Congress invalid and disregarded a writ of error from the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Taney on grounds both of dual sovereignty and national supremacy was even more emphatic in his rebuke of State pretensions. His emphasis on the indispensability of the federal judicial power to maintain national supremacy, to protect the States from national encroachments, and to make the Constitution and laws of the United States uniform all combine to enhance the federal judicial power to a degree beyond that envisaged even by Marshall and Story. As late as 1880 the questions presented in the foregoing cases were before the Court in Williams v. Bruffy, 102 U.S. 248 (1880), which again involved the refusal of a Virginia court to enforce a mandate of the Supreme Court. By the act of December 23, 1914, 38 Stat. 790, the 25th section of the Judiciary Act of 1789 which was carried over with modifications into the Revised Statutes, § 690; 28 U.S.C. § 344 was amended so as to provide for review of State court decisions on certiorari whether the federal claim is sustained or denied. These provisions are now contained in 28 U.S.C.A. 1257 (1948).

The first case involving invalid State legislation arose under a treaty of the United States. Ware v. Hylton, 3 Dall. 199 (1797). In Calder v. Bull, 3 Dall. 386 (1798), the Court sustained a State statute as not being an ex post facto law. The first case in which a State statute was held invalid as a violation of the Constitution was Fletcher v. Peck, 6 Cr. 87 (1810), which came to the Supreme Court by appeal from a United States circuit court and not by a writ of error under section 25. Famous cases coming to the Court under section 25 were Sturges v. Crowninshield, 4 Wheat. 122, McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, and Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 4 Wheat. 518. All three were decided in 1819 and the State legislation involved in each was held void.