Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States

by Joseph Story, Kermit Roosevelt III (Introduction)

Overview

More than 150 years after their first publication, Story's 1833 commentaries continue to be cited by both courts and commentators. Originally published in two forms — a three-volume treatise and a one-volume abridgement — the one-volume work reprinted here contains all of Story's mature thoughts on the nature of constitutional adjudication, the role of the courts, and his theories on judicial review and constitutional interpretation.

This book is part of the Legal History Series, edited by H. Jefferson Powell, Duke University School of Law.

"…it would not perhaps be amiss to suggest that the most important publishing event of the [Constitution's] bicentennial year was the reappearance in print of Justice Story's own one-volume abridgement of Commentaries." — The American Journal of Legal History

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610271967
Publisher:	Quid Pro, LLC
Publication date:	05/24/2013
Pages:	442
Sales rank:	516,461
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Joseph Story (1779-1845) was a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, as well as an Associate Supreme Court Justice from 1811-1845. He delivered the majority opinion freeing the Amistad slaves.

John Nowak is the Raymond and Mary Simon Chair in Constitutional Law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

The late Ronald Rotunda was the Doy & Dee Henley Chair and a Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence at Chapman University School of Law.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER XVII. POWER TO COIN MONEY AND FIX THE STANDARD OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. § 1116. The next power of Congress is " to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures."1 § 1117. Under the confederation, the continental congress had delegated to them " the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the States," and " fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout the United States." It is observable that, under the confederation, there was no power given to regulate the value of foreign coin, an omission which, in a great measure, would destroy any uniformity in the value of the current coin, since the respective States might, by different regulations, create a different value in each.2 The Constitution has, with great propriety, cured this defect; and, indeed, the whole clause, as it now stands, does not seem to have attracted any discussionin the convention.1 It has been justly remarked, that the power "to coin money" would, doubtless, include that of regulating its value, had the latter power not been expressly inserted. But the Constitution abounds with pleonasms and repetitions of this nature.2 1 [After the breaking out of the great civil war in 1861, it was deemed necessary by Congress, in order to supply the means of carrying on the war, to issue a large amount of treasury notes, and to make them a legal tender in payment of private debts, and also of all public dues except duties on imports and interest on the public debt. These notes thereupon, to a large extent, became the circulating medinm of the country, and goldand silver ceased to be used in ordinary traffic, except on the Pacific slope. The constitutiona...