AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. In a State which has a constitution of the 'fixed' or statu tory type, like the United States, much less is left to convention and understanding, and much less depends upon custom and expediency. The area of law under such a constitution is, there tore, much wider, while the task of the constitu tional lawyer is much simpler. The constitu tional law of such a State consists of the terms of the Constitution itself, with the amendments thereto, and the judicial decisions in which its provisions have come up for construction and application. No acts of the legislature declaring the rights of the citizen, no treaty with a foreign government, no abdication of power by any arm of the State, enters into it. In the American system the only authoritative exposition of a con stitution is that afforded by the courts. This extraordinary jurisdiction is not confined to the Supreme Court, but is exercised as well by the inferior Federal courts and by the regular tribu nals of the several States. As constitutional law, the judgments of these courts vary according to the Constitution whose provision: are under ex amination. The Supreme Court of the United States is the final authority on the Federal Con stitution, and the supreme appellate courts of the several States on the constitutions of their re spective States.
It will be borne in mind that the judicial power in the United States extends to acts of Congress and of the legislatures, the Constitution being the supreme law to which all legislation must con form; whereas, the British Constitution, not being a supreme law, but a part of the ordinary law of the land. the powers of Parliament are not and cannot be limited by it. Accordingly judicial decisions upon the legislative power and its limitations, which constitute the bulk of con stitutional law in the United States, are wholly unknown in England.
This, indeed, is the leading principle of Ameri can constitutional law—that all acts of govern ment, whether legislative, judicial, or adminis trative, made or done in contravention of the Constitution, are void. This principle is equally applicable to the constitutions of the several States and to that of the United States. But the
Federal Government being one of strictly limited powers, a still more stringent principle is applied to test the validity of its acts—namely, that they are void if not specially sanctioned by the fundamental law. But it does not lie within the competence of the courts to control the action of the State on any other principles than such as are laid down in the fundamental law. They can not declare void an act within the general com petence of the legislative powers. merely because it is contrary to natural justice, or because it violates fundamental principles of republican government, or because of a supposed conflict with the general spirit of the Constitution. It should be added that an act adjudged to be un constitutional is held to have been void and with out legal validity from the time of its enact ment.
In the article CONSTITUTION (q.v.), reference is made to certain changes which the Constitution of the United States has undergone as the result of judicial interpretation and the slow growth of custom. The former of these is clearly a part of constitutional law, but it is not easy to say how far a particular custom, if threatened with violation, would be supported by the courts. It seems probable, however, that the Supreme Court would not hesitate to recognize a well-established practice of the Government as a part of the con stitutional law of the land, lf, for example, a Presidential elector should at the present time assert his right to disregard the instructions under which he was chosen and cast his vote for the candidate of the opposing party, there is at least a question whether he could not by re strained by the courts from carrying his intention into effect. See CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES; LAW; PUBLIC LAW. Besides the au thorities referred to under the title CONSTITU TION, consult: Boutmy, Th-e English Constitu tion (London and New York, 1891) ; and Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (5th ed., Boston, 1891).