Bricker Amendment - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Bricker Amendment is the collective name of a series of proposed amendments

Article Five of the United States Constitution

Article Five of the United States Constitution describes the process whereby the Constitution may be altered. Altering the Constitution consists of proposing an amendment and subsequent ratification....

to the United States Constitution

United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

considered by the United States Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

in the 1950s. These amendments would have placed restrictions on the scope and ratification of treaties

Treaty

A treaty is an express agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. A treaty may also be known as an agreement, protocol, covenant, convention or exchange of letters, among other terms...

and executive agreements entered into by the United States and are named for their sponsor, Senator John W. Bricker

John W. Bricker

John William Bricker was a United States Senator and the 54th Governor of Ohio. A member of the Republican Party, he was the Republican nominee for Vice President in 1944.-Early life:...

of Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, a conservative Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

.

Non-interventionism

Non-interventionism

Nonintervention or non-interventionism is a foreign policy which holds that political rulers should avoid alliances with other nations, but still retain diplomacy, and avoid all wars not related to direct self-defense...

, the view that the United States should not become embroiled in foreign conflicts and world politics, has always been an element in American politics but was especially strong in the years following World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. American entry into World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

temporarily suppressed non-interventionist sentiments, but they returned in the post-war years in response to America's new international role, particularly as a reaction to the new United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

and its affiliated international organization

International organization

An intergovernmental organization, sometimes rendered as an international governmental organization and both abbreviated as IGO, is an organization composed primarily of sovereign states , or of other intergovernmental organizations...

s. Some feared the loss of American sovereignty

Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...

to these transnational agencies, because of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

's role in the spread of international Communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

and the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

.

Frank E. Holman

Frank E. Holman

Frank Ezekiel Holman was an American attorney who after his election as president of the American Bar Association in 1948 led an effort to amend the United States Constitution to limit the power of treaties and executive agreements. Holman's work led to the Bricker Amendment.Holman was born in...

, president of the American Bar Association

American Bar Association

The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...

(ABA), called attention to state and Federal court

United States federal courts

The United States federal courts make up the judiciary branch of federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government.-Categories:...

decisions, notably Missouri v. Holland
Missouri v. Holland
Missouri v. Holland, 252 U.S. 416 , the United States Supreme Court held that protection of its quasi-sovereign right to regulate the taking of game is a sufficient jurisdictional basis, apart from any pecuniary interest, for a bill by a State to enjoin enforcement of federal regulations over the...

, which he claimed could give international treaties and agreements precedence over the United States Constitution and could be used by foreigners to threaten American liberties. Senator Bricker was influenced by the ABA's work and first introduced a constitutional amendment in 1951. With substantial popular support and the election of a Republican President

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

and Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

in the elections of 1952, Bricker's plan seemed destined to be sent to the individual states for ratification. The best-known version of the Bricker Amendment, considered by the Senate in 1953–54, declared that no treaty could be made by the United States that conflicted with the Constitution, was self-executing without the passage of separate enabling legislation through Congress, or which granted Congress legislative powers beyond those specified in the Constitution. It also limited the president's power to enter into executive agreements with foreign powers.

Bricker's proposal attracted broad bipartisan

Bipartisanship

Bipartisanship is a political situation, usually in the context of a two-party system such as the United States, in which opposing political parties find common ground through compromise. The adjective bipartisan can refer to any bill, act, resolution, or other political act in which both of the...

support and was a focal point of intra-party conflict between the administration of president Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

and the Old Right

Old Right (United States)

The Old Right was a conservative faction in the United States that opposed both New Deal domestic programs and U.S. entry into World War II. Many members of this faction were associated with the Republicans of the interwar years led by Robert Taft, but some were Democrats...

faction of conservative Republican senators. Despite the initial support, the Bricker Amendment was blocked through the intervention of President Eisenhower and failed in the Senate by a single vote in 1954. Three years later the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

explicitly ruled in Reid v. Covert
Reid v. Covert
Reid v. Covert, , is a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution supersedes international treaties ratified by the United States Senate...

that the Bill of Rights

United States Bill of Rights

The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. These limitations serve to protect the natural rights of liberty and property. They guarantee a number of personal freedoms, limit the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and...

cannot be abrogated by agreements with foreign powers. Nevertheless, Senator Bricker's ideas still have supporters, and new versions of his amendment have been reintroduced in Congress periodically.

American non-interventionism

The Bricker Amendment controversy grew from the strong vein of non-interventionism

Non-interventionism

, nationalism

Nationalism

Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

, and suspicion of foreign influences that has existed from the beginnings of the American republic

Republic

A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...

. "Non-interventionism was the considered response to foreign and domestic developments of a large, responsible, and respectable segment of the American people," wrote one historian of the movement. The pre-Revolutionary

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

cry of "no taxation without representation

No taxation without representation

"No taxation without representation" is a slogan originating during the 1750s and 1760s that summarized a primary grievance of the British colonists in the Thirteen Colonies, which was one of the major causes of the American Revolution...

!" spoke to the inability of Americans to participate in how they would be governed, a state made clear when British

Kingdom of Great Britain

The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...

authorities suppressed local government in colonies

Thirteen Colonies

The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...

accustomed to home rule

Home rule

Home rule is the power of a constituent part of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been devolved to it by the central government....

, e.g. Massachusetts

Province of Massachusetts Bay

The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a crown colony in North America. It was chartered on October 7, 1691 by William and Mary, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of England and Scotland...

. The first President

President of the United States

, George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

, warned his countrymen to observe good faith and justice towards all nations, to cultivate peace and harmony with all, excluding both "inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others",and "to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." Under John Adams

John Adams

John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...

, his successor, the United States attempted to avoid the conflict

French Revolutionary Wars

The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...

between France and Britain, and passed the Alien and Sedition Acts

Alien and Sedition Acts

The Alien and Sedition Acts were four bills passed in 1798 by the Federalists in the 5th United States Congress in the aftermath of the French Revolution's reign of terror and during an undeclared naval war with France, later known as the Quasi-War. They were signed into law by President John Adams...

of 1798 to control foreign citizens. In his inaugural address, President Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

declared that one of "the essential principles of our Government" was "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none." President James Monroe

James Monroe

James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States . Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation...

's doctrine

Monroe Doctrine

The Monroe Doctrine is a policy of the United States introduced on December 2, 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring U.S. intervention...

(1823) announced the primacy of American influence in the Western Hemisphere.

In the 20th century, America was initially neutral in World War I

World War I

and avoided entering the conflict for three years. President Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...

, a Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

, won reelection in 1916

United States presidential election, 1916

The United States presidential election of 1916 took place while Europe was embroiled in World War I. Public sentiment in the still neutral United States leaned towards the British and French forces, due to the harsh treatment of civilians by the German Army, which had invaded and occupied large...

with the slogan "he kept us out of war," although he subsequently led the U.S. into the conflict. Once hostilities were concluded, Republican Senators William Borah of Idaho

Idaho

Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....

and Henry Cabot Lodge

Henry Cabot Lodge

Henry Cabot "Slim" Lodge was an American Republican Senator and historian from Massachusetts. He had the role of Senate Majority leader. He is best known for his positions on Meek policy, especially his battle with President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 over the Treaty of Versailles...

of Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

led like-minded colleagues in the United States Senate

United States Senate

to reject the Treaty of Versailles

Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...

(1919) and to avoid joining both international agencies created by it, the League of Nations

League of Nations

The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

and the World Court

Permanent Court of International Justice

The Permanent Court of International Justice, often called the World Court, was an international court attached to the League of Nations. Created in 1922 , the Court was initially met with a good reaction from states and academics alike, with many cases submitted to it for its first decade of...

, for fear of losing American sovereignty

Sovereignty

.

This fear of foreign control was long associated with anti-Catholicism and attendant allegations of Catholic dual loyalty

Dual loyalty

In politics, dual loyalty is loyalty to two separate interests that potentially conflict with each other.-Inherently controversial:While nearly all examples of alleged "dual loyalty" are considered highly controversial, these examples point to the inherent difficulty in distinguishing between what...

to their country and the Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

, stemming from America's British Protestant roots. As late as the 1960 presidential election, in which President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

became America's first Catholic chief executive, there were Americans who believed Catholics' first loyalty would be to the Pope and not the United States. Previous concerns about "foreign influence" led to restrictive laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Johnson-Reed Act

Immigration Act of 1924

The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, and Asian Exclusion Act , was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already...

of 1924, the Smith Act

Smith Act

The Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940 is a United States federal statute that set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S...

of 1940, and numerous state laws restricting foreigners from engaging in business or owning land. Similarly, America long maintained a protectionist

Protectionism

Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...

trade

International trade

International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories. In most countries, such trade represents a significant share of gross domestic product...

policy with high tariff

Tariff

A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....

s on foreign products, notably the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act of 1930.

In the 1930s, legislators of both parties opposed American involvement in the conflicts in Asia and Europe. Between 1934 and 1936, Senator Gerald Nye

Gerald Nye

Gerald Prentice Nye was a United States politician, representing North Dakota in the U.S. Senate from 1925-45...

held dramatic hearings

Nye Committee

The Nye Committee, officially known as the Special Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry, was a committee of the United States Senate which studied the causes of United States' involvement in World War I...

attempting to show that America was forced into World War I by an alliance of arms merchants, bankers, and foreign influences. In response, Congress

United States Congress

passed, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

signed, Senator Nye's Neutrality Act of 1935 to preclude American involvement in another European war.

Several times after the conclusion of World War I

World War I

, constitutional amendments were proposed in Congress to require a nationwide referendum on declaring war. When President Roosevelt in 1937 proposed a "quarantine" of aggressing nations such as Japan

Empire of Japan

The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...

, he found little support, remarking "It's a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead—and find no one there." The America First Committee

America First Committee

The America First Committee was the foremost non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry into World War II. Peaking at 800,000 members, it was likely the largest anti-war organization in American history. Started in 1940, it became defunct after the attack on Pearl Harbor in...

, formed in 1940 to keep the United States out of World War II

World War II

, included Americans across the political spectrum from socialist Norman Thomas

Norman Thomas

Norman Mattoon Thomas was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.-Early years:...

, journalist John T. Flynn

John T. Flynn

John Thomas Flynn was an American journalist best known for his opposition to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and to American entry into World War II.-Career:...

of The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...

, and Senator Burton K. Wheeler

Burton K. Wheeler

Burton Kendall Wheeler was an American politician of the Democratic Party and a United States Senator from 1923 until 1947.-Early life:...

of Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

on the left to Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

publisher Colonel Robert R. McCormick

Robert R. McCormick

Robert Rutherford "Colonel" McCormick was a member of the McCormick family of Chicago who became owner and publisher of the Chicago Tribune newspaper...

, Sears, Roebuck chairman General Robert E. Wood

Robert E. Wood

Robert Elkington Wood was a U.S. Army Brigadier General and businessman best known for his leadership of Sears, Roebuck and Company.- Early life :...

, and Senator Nye on the right. Prior to America's entry into World War II, President Roosevelt proposed helping the United Kingdom against Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

; in response, Senator Wheeler famously declared "the lend-lease-give program

Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...

is the New Deal

New Deal

The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...

's triple-A

Agricultural Adjustment Act

The Agricultural Adjustment Act was a United States federal law of the New Deal era which restricted agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies not to plant part of their land and to kill off excess livestock...

foreign policy; it will plow under every fourth American boy." Senator Wheeler was even thought to have leaked the United States's war plan Rainbow 5 (which superseded Orange

War Plan Orange

War Plan Orange refers to a series of United States Joint Army and Navy Board war plans for dealing with a possible war with Japan during the years between the First and Second World Wars....

) only days before the attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

on December 7, 1941. Typical of American sentiment was the title of an anti-interventionist book, Why Meddle in Europe? Even Bainbridge Colby

Bainbridge Colby

Bainbridge Colby was an American lawyer, a founder of the United States Progressive Party and Woodrow Wilson's last Secretary of State.-Life:...

, Secretary of State

United States Secretary of State

The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...

under Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

, testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the United States Senate. It is charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. The Foreign Relations Committee is generally responsible for overseeing and funding foreign aid programs as...

in 1939 that entering World War I

World War I

had been a mistake and the United States would have been better off even if Germany had won that conflict.

Fears return after World War II

The attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

temporarily silenced American non-interventionism; the America First Committee

America First Committee

disbanded within days. However, in the final days of World War II, non-interventionism began its resurgence— non-interventionists had spoken against ratification of the United Nations Charter

United Nations Charter

The Charter of the United Nations is the foundational treaty of the international organization called the United Nations. It was signed at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, United States, on 26 June 1945, by 50 of the 51 original member countries...

but were unsuccessful in preventing the United States from becoming a founding member of the United Nations

United Nations

. Suspicions of the U.N. and its associated international organization

International organization

s were fanned by conservatives, most notably by Frank E. Holman

Frank E. Holman

, an attorney from Seattle, Washington in what has been called a "crusade."

Holman, a Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

native and Rhodes scholar

Rhodes Scholarship

The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...

, was elected president of the American Bar Association

American Bar Association

in 1947 and dedicated his term as president to warning Americans of the dangers of "treaty law." While Article II of the United Nations Charter stated "Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state," an international analogue to the Tenth Amendment

Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791...

, Holman saw the work of the U.N. on the proposed Genocide Convention

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948 as General Assembly Resolution 260. The Convention entered into force on 12 January 1951. It defines genocide in legal terms, and is the culmination of...

and Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...

and numerous proposals of the International Labor Organization, a body created under the League of Nations

League of Nations

, as being far outside the UN's powers and an invasion against American liberties.

Holman cautioned the Genocide

Genocide

Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...

Convention would subject Americans to the jurisdiction of foreign courts with unfamiliar procedures and without the protections afforded under the Bill of Rights

United States Bill of Rights

. He said the Convention's language was sweeping and vague and offered a scenario where a white motorist who struck and killed a black child could be extradited to The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

on genocide charges. Holman's critics claimed the language was no more sweeping or vague than the state and Federal statutes that American courts interpreted every day. Duane Tananbaum, the leading historian of the Bricker Amendment, wrote "most of ABA's objections to the Genocide Convention had no basis whatsoever in reality" and his example of a car accident becoming an international incident was not possible. Eisenhower's Attorney General

United States Attorney General

The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...

Herbert Brownell

Herbert Brownell, Jr.

Herbert Brownell, Jr. was the Attorney General of the United States in President Eisenhower's cabinet from 1953 to 1957.-Early life:...

called this scenario "outlandish".

But Holman's hypothetical especially alarmed Southern Democrats

Southern Democrats

Southern Democrats are members of the U.S. Democratic Party who reside in the American South. In the 19th century, they were the definitive pro-slavery wing of the party, opposed to both the anti-slavery Republicans and the more liberal Northern Democrats.Eventually "Redemption" was finalized in...

who had gone to great lengths to obstruct Federal action targeted at ending the Jim Crow

Jim Crow laws

The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...

system of racial segregation

Racial segregation

Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...

in the American South. They feared that, if ratified, the Genocide Convention could be used in conjunction with the Constitution's Necessary and Proper Clause to pass a Federal civil rights law (despite the conservative view that such a law would go beyond the enumerated powers

Enumerated powers

The enumerated powers are a list of items found in Article I, section 8 of the US Constitution that set forth the authoritative capacity of the United States Congress. In summary, Congress may exercise the powers that the Constitution grants it, subject to explicit restrictions in the Bill of...

of Article I, Section 8.) President Eisenhower's aide Arthur Larson

Arthur Larson

Lewis Arthur Larson was an American lawyer, law professor, United States Under Secretary of Labor from 1954 to 1956, director of the United States Information Agency from 1956 to 1957, and Executive Assistant to the President for Speeches from 1957 to 1958.Lewis Arthur Larson was born in Sioux...

said Holman's warnings were part of "all kinds of preposterous and legally lunatic scares [that] were raised," including "that the International Court

International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...

would take over our tariff and immigration controls, and then our education, post offices, military and welfare activities." In Holman's own book advancing the Bricker Amendment he wrote the U.N. Charter meant the Federal government could:

control and regulate all education, including public and parochial schools, it could control and regulate all matters affecting civil rights, marriage, divorce, etc; it could control all our sources of production of foods and the products of the farms and factories; . . . it could regiment labor and conditions of employment.

Legal background

The United States Constitution

United States Constitution

, effective in 1789, gave the Federal government

Federal government of the United States

The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...

power over foreign affairs and restricted the individual States' authority in this realm. Article I

Article One of the United States Constitution

Article One of the United States Constitution describes the powers of Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government. The Article establishes the powers of and limitations on the Congress, consisting of a House of Representatives composed of Representatives, with each state gaining or...

, section ten provides, "no State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation" and that "no State shall, without the Consent of the Congress . . . enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State or with a foreign Power." The Federal government's primacy was made clear in the Supremacy Clause

Supremacy Clause

Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, known as the Supremacy Clause, establishes the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Treaties, and Federal Statutes as "the supreme law of the land." The text decrees these to be the highest form of law in the U.S...

of Article VI

Article Six of the United States Constitution

Article Six of the United States Constitution establishes the Constitution and the laws and treaties of the United States made in accordance with it as the supreme law of the land, forbids a religious test as a requirement for holding a governmental position and holds the United States under the...

, which declares, "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the Supreme Law of the land; and the Judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." While executive agreements were not mentioned in the Constitution, Congress authorized them for delivery of the mail as early as 1792.

Early precedents

Constitutional scholars note that the supremacy clause was designed to protect the only significant treaty into which the infant United States had entered: the Treaty of Paris

Treaty of Paris (1783)

The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on the one hand and the United States of America and its allies on the other. The other combatant nations, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic had separate agreements; for details of...

of 1783, which ended the Revolutionary War

American Revolution

and under which Great Britain

Kingdom of Great Britain

recognized the thirteen former colonies as thirteen independent and fully sovereign states. Nonetheless, its wording ignited fear of the potential abuse of the treaty power from the beginning. For example, the North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

ratifying convention that approved the Constitution did so with a reservation asking for a constitutional amendment that

No treaties which shall be directly opposed to the existing laws of the United States in Congress assembled shall be valid until such laws shall be repealed, or made conformable to such treaty; nor shall any treaty be valid which is contradictory to the Constitution of the United States.

Early legal precedents striking down State laws that conflicted with Federally-negotiated international treaties arose from the peace treaty with Britain, but subsequent treaties were found to trump city ordinances, state laws on escheat

Escheat

Escheat is a common law doctrine which transfers the property of a person who dies without heirs to the crown or state. It serves to ensure that property is not left in limbo without recognised ownership...

of land owned by foreigners and, in the 20th Century, state laws regarding tort claims. Subsequently, in a case involving a treaty concluded with the Cherokee

Cherokee

The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

Indians, the Supreme Court declared "It need hardly be said that a treaty cannot change the Constitution or be held valid if it be in violation of that instrument. This results from the nature and fundamental principles of our government. The effect of treaties and acts of Congress, when in conflict, is not settled by the Constitution. But the question is not involved in any doubt as to its proper solution. A treaty may supersede a prior act of Congress, and an act of Congress may supersede a prior treaty."

Likewise, in a case regarding ownership of land by foreign nationals, the Court wrote "The treaty power, as expressed in the constitution, is in terms unlimited, except by those restraints which are found in that instrument against the action of the government, or of its departments, and those arising from the nature of the government itself, and of that of the states. It would not be contended that it extends so far as to authorize what the constitution forbids, or a change in the character of the government, or in that of one of the states, or a cession of any portion of the territory of the latter, without its consent. But, with these exceptions, it is not perceived that there is any limit to the questions which can be adjusted touching any matter which is properly the subject of negotiation with a foreign country." Justice Stephen Johnson Field

Stephen Johnson Field

Stephen Johnson Field was an American jurist. He was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court of the United States Supreme Court from May 20, 1863, to December 1, 1897...

, dissenting in an 1898 immigration case, wrote, "that statutes enacted by Congress, as well as treaties made by the president and senate, must yield to the paramount and supreme law of the constitution."

However, these prior statements seemed to be overruled by the Court's 1920 decision in Missouri v. Holland
Missouri v. Holland
Missouri v. Holland, 252 U.S. 416 , the United States Supreme Court held that protection of its quasi-sovereign right to regulate the taking of game is a sufficient jurisdictional basis, apart from any pecuniary interest, for a bill by a State to enjoin enforcement of federal regulations over the...

.

Missouri v. Holland

The precedent most often cited by critics of "treaty law" was Missouri v. Holland. Congress had attempted to protect migratory birds

Bird migration

Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...

by statute, but federal and state courts declared the law unconstitutional

Constitutionality

Constitutionality is the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution. Acts that are not in accordance with the rules laid down in the constitution are deemed to be ultra vires.-See also:*ultra vires*Company law*Constitutional law...

. The United States subsequently negotiated and ratified a treaty with Canada to achieve the same purpose, Congress then passed the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918

Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 , codified at , is a United States federal law, at first enacted in 1916 in order to implement the convention for the protection of migratory birds between the United States and Great Britain...

to enforce it. In Missouri v. Holland, the United States Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the United States

upheld the constitutionality of the new law. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...

, writing for the Court, declared:

Acts of Congress are the supreme law of the land only when made in pursuance of the Constitution, while treaties are declared to be so when made under the authority of the United States. It is open to question whether the authority of the United States means more than the formal acts prescribed to make the convention. We do not mean to imply that there are no qualifications to the treaty-making power; but they must be ascertained in a different way. It is obvious that there may be matters of the sharpest exigency for the national well being that an act of Congress could not deal with but that a treaty followed by such an act could, and it is not lightly to be assumed that, in matters requiring national action, 'a power which must belong to and somewhere reside in every civilized government' is not to be found.

Proponents of the Bricker Amendment said this language made it essential to add to the Constitution explicit limitations on the treaty-making power. Raymond Moley

Raymond Moley

Raymond Charles Moley was a leading New Dealer who became its bitter opponent before the end of the Great Depression....

wrote in 1953 that Holland meant "the protection of an international duck takes precedence over the constitutional protections of American citizens." In response, legal scholars such as Professor Edward Samuel Corwin

Edward Samuel Corwin

Edward Samuel Corwin was president of the American Political Science Association.-Biography:He was born in Plymouth, Michigan on January 19, 1878. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1900; and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1905...

of Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

said the language of the Constitution regarding treaties—"under the authority of the United States"—was misunderstood by Holmes, and was written to protect the 1783 peace treaty with Britain; this became "in part the source of Senator Bricker's agitation." Professor Zechariah Chafee

Zechariah Chafee

Zechariah Chafee, Jr. was an American judicial philosopher and civil libertarian. An advocate for free speech, he was described by Senator Joseph McCarthy as "dangerous" to the United States...

, of Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

wrote "the Framers

Founding Fathers of the United States

The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were political leaders and statesmen who participated in the American Revolution by signing the United States Declaration of Independence, taking part in the American Revolutionary War, establishing the United States Constitution, or by some...

never talked about having treaties on the same level as the Constitution. What they did want was to make sure a state could no longer flout any lawful action taken by the nation." "Supreme", as used in Article VI, Chafee claimed, "means simply supreme over the states."

Pink and Belmont

Two additional cases frequently cited by proponents of the Amendment were both related to the Roosevelt Administration

Franklin D. Roosevelt

's recognition of the Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

government in 1933. In the course of recognizing the USSR, letters were exchanged with the Soviet Union's foreign minister, Maxim Litvinov

Maxim Litvinov

Maxim Maximovich Litvinov was a Russian revolutionary and prominent Soviet diplomat.- Early life and first exile :...

, to settle claims between the two countries, in an agreement neither sent to the Senate nor ratified by it. In Belmont v. United States the constitutionality of executive agreements was tested in the Supreme Court. Justice George Sutherland

George Sutherland

Alexander George Sutherland was an English-born U.S. jurist and political figure. One of four appointments to the Supreme Court by President Warren G. Harding, he served as an Associate Justice of the U.S...

, writing for the majority, upheld the power of the president, finding:

That the negotiations, acceptance of the assignment and agreements and understandings in respect thereof were within the competence of the President may not be doubted. Governmental power over external affairs is not distributed, but is vested exclusively in the national government. And in respect of what was done here, the Executive had authority to speak as the sole organ of that government. The assignment and the agreements in connection therewith did not, as in the case of treaties, as that term is used in the treaty making clause of the Constitution (article 2, 2), require the advice and consent of the Senate.

A second case from the Litvinov agreement, United States v. Pink, also went to the Supreme Court. In Pink, the New York State Superintendent of Insurance was ordered to turn over assets belonging to a Russian insurance company pursuant to the Litvinov assignment. The United States sued New York to claim the money held by the Insurance Superintendent, and lost in lower courts. However, the Supreme Court held New York was interfering with the President's exclusive power over foreign affairs, independent of any language in the Constitution—a doctrine it enunciated in United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp.
United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp.
United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp., 299 U.S. 304 , was a United States Supreme Court case involving principles of both governmental regulation of business and the supremacy of the executive branch of the federal government to conduct foreign affairs.-The Facts:In Curtiss-Wright, the...

—and ordered New York to pay the money to the Federal Government. The Court declared, "the Fifth Amendment

Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215...

does not stand in the way of giving full force and effect to the Litvinov Assignment" and

The powers of the President in the conduct of foreign relations included the power, without consent of the Senate, to determine the public policy of the United States with respect to the Russian nationalization decrees. What government is to be regarded here as representative of a foreign sovereign state is a political rather than a judicial question, and is to be determined by the political department of the government. That authority is not limited to a determination of the government to be recognized. It includes the power to determine the policy which is to govern the question of recognition. Objections to the underlying policy as well as objections to recognition are to be addressed to the political department and not to the courts.

Rulings during Congressional debate

Unlike in Pink and Belmont, an executive agreement on potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

imports from Canada, litigated in United States v. Guy W. Capps, Inc., another oft cited case, the courts declared an agreement unenforceable. In Capps the courts found that the agreement, which directly contradicted a statute passed by Congress, could not be enforced.

But the dissent of Chief Justice

Chief Justice of the United States

The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...

Fred M. Vinson

Frederick Moore Vinson served the United States in all three branches of government and was the most prominent member of the Vinson political family. In the legislative branch, he was an elected member of the United States House of Representatives from Louisa, Kentucky, for twelve years...

in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, , also commonly referred to as The Steel Seizure Case, was a United States Supreme Court decision that limited the power of the President of the United States to seize private property in the absence of either specifically enumerated authority under Article...

(commonly referred to as the "steel seizure case") alarmed conservatives. President Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

had nationalize

Nationalization

Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...

d the American Steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

industry to prevent a strike

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

he claimed would interfere with the prosecution of the Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

. Though the United States Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the United States

found this illegal, Vinson's defense of this sweeping exercise of executive authority was used to justify the Bricker Amendment. Those warning of "treaty law" claimed that in the future, Americans could be endangered with the use of the executive powers Vinson supported.

State precedents

Some state courts issued rulings in the 1940s and 1950s that relied on the United Nations Charter

United Nations Charter

, much to the alarm of Holman and others. In Fujii v. California, a California law restricting the ownership of land by aliens was ruled by a state appeals court to be a violation of the U.N. Charter. In Fujii, the Court declared "The Charter has become 'the supreme Law of the Land . . . any Thing in the Constitution of Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.' The position of this country in the family of nations forbids trafficking innocuous generalities but demands that every State in the Union accept and act upon the Charter according to its plain language and its unmistakable purpose and intent." However, the California Supreme Court

Supreme Court of California

The Supreme Court of California is the highest state court in California. It is headquartered in San Francisco and regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Its decisions are binding on all other California state courts.-Composition:...

overruled, declaring that while the Charter was "entitled to respectful consideration by the courts and Legislatures of every member nation," it was "not intended to supersede existing domestic legislation." Similarly, a New York trial court refused to consider the U.N. Charter in an effort to strike down racially restrictive covenants

Restrictive covenant

A restrictive covenant is a type of real covenant, a legal obligation imposed in a deed by the seller upon the buyer of real estate to do or not to do something. Such restrictions frequently "run with the land" and are enforceable on subsequent buyers of the property...

in housing, declaring "these treaties have nothing to do with domestic matters," citing Article 2, Section 7 of the Charter. In another covenant case, the Michigan Supreme Court

Michigan Supreme Court

The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is known as Michigan's "court of last resort" and consists of seven justices who are elected to eight-year terms. Candidates are nominated by political parties and are elected on a nonpartisan ballot...

discounted efforts to use the Charter, saying "these pronouncements are merely indicative of a desirable social trend and an objective devoutly to be desired by all well-thinking peoples." These words were quoted with approval by the Iowa Supreme Court

Iowa Supreme Court

The Iowa Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Iowa. As constitutional head of the Iowa Judicial Branch, the Court is composed of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices....

in overturning a lower court decision that relied on the Charter, noting the Charter's principles "do not have the force or effect of superseding our laws."

Internationalization and the United Nations

Following the Second World War

World War II

, various treaties were proposed under the aegis of the United Nations, in the spirit of collective security

Collective security

Collective security can be understood as a security arrangement, regional or global, in which each state in the system accepts that the security of one is the concern of all, and agrees to join in a collective response to threats to, and breaches of, the peace...

and internationalism that followed the global conflict of the preceding years. In particular, the Genocide Convention, which made a crime of "causing serious mental harm" to "a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group" and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which contained sweeping language about health care

Health care

Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...

, employment

Employment

Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...

, vacations

Annual leave

Annual leave is paid time off work granted by employers to employees to be used for whatever the employee wishes. Depending on the employer's policies, differing number of days may be offered, and the employee may be required to give a certain amount of advance notice, may have to coordinate with...

, and other subjects outside the traditional scope of treaties, were considered problematic by non-interventionists and advocates of limited government

Limited government

Limited government is a government which anything more than minimal governmental intervention in personal liberties and the economy is generally disallowed by law, usually in a written constitution. It is written in the United States Constitution in Article 1, Section 8...

. Historian Stephen Ambrose

Stephen Ambrose

Stephen Edward Ambrose was an American historian and biographer of U.S. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. He was a long time professor of history at the University of New Orleans and the author of many best selling volumes of American popular history...

described the suspicions of Americans: "Southern leaders feared that the U.N. commitment to human rights would imperil segregation; the American Medical Association

American Medical Association

The American Medical Association , founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of medical doctors and medical students in the United States.-Scope and operations:...

feared it would bring about socialized medicine

Socialized medicine

Socialized medicine is a term used to describe a system for providing medical and hospital care for all at a nominal cost by means of government regulation of health services and subsidies derived from taxation. It is used primarily and usually pejoratively in United States political debates...

." It was, the American Bar Association

American Bar Association

declared, "one of the greatest constitutional crises the country has ever faced."

Conservatives were worried that these treaties could be used to expand the power of the Federal government at the expense of the people and the states. In a speech to the American Bar Association

American Bar Association

's regional meeting at Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

on April 11, 1952, John Foster Dulles

John Foster Dulles

John Foster Dulles served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism throughout the world...

, an American delegate to the United Nations

United Nations

, said, "Treaties make international law and they also make domestic law. Under our Constitution, treaties become the Supreme Law of the Land. They are indeed more supreme than ordinary laws, for Congressional laws are invalid if they do not conform to the Constitution, whereas treaty laws can override the Constitution." Dulles said the power to make treaties "is an extraordinary power liable to abuse." Senator Everett Dirksen

Everett Dirksen

Everett McKinley Dirksen was an American politician of the Republican Party. He represented Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate...

, a Republican of Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, declared, "we are in a new era of international organizations. They are grinding out treaties like so many eager beavers which will have effects on the rights of American citizens." Eisenhower's Attorney General

United States Attorney General

Herbert Brownell

Herbert Brownell, Jr.

Herbert Brownell, Jr. was the Attorney General of the United States in President Eisenhower's cabinet from 1953 to 1957.-Early life:...

admitted executive agreements "had sometimes been abused in the past." Frank E. Holman wrote Secretary of State

United States Secretary of State

George Marshall

George Catlett Marshall was an American military leader, Chief of Staff of the Army, Secretary of State, and the third Secretary of Defense...

in November 1948 regarding the dangers of the Human Rights Declaration, receiving the dismissive reply that the agreement was "merely declaratory in character" and had no legal effect. The conservative ABA called for a Constitutional amendment to address what they perceived to be a potential abuse of executive power. Holman described the threat:

More or less coincident with the organization of the United Nations a new form of internationalism arose which undertook to enlarge the historical concept of international law and treaties to have them include and deal with the domestic affairs and internal laws of independent nations.

Senator Bricker thought the "one world" movement

Transnational progressivism

Transnational progressivism is a term coined by Hudson Institute Fellow John Fonte in 2001 to describe an ideology that endorses a concept of postnational global citizenship and promotes the authority of international institutions over the sovereignty of individual nation-states.-Overview:Fonte...

advocated by those such as Wendell Willkie

Wendell Willkie

Wendell Lewis Willkie was a corporate lawyer in the United States and a dark horse who became the Republican Party nominee for the president in 1940. A member of the liberal wing of the GOP, he crusaded against those domestic policies of the New Deal that he thought were inefficient and...

, Roosevelt's Republican challenger in the 1940 election

United States presidential election, 1940

The United States presidential election of 1940 was fought in the shadow of World War II as the United States was emerging from the Great Depression. Incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt , a Democrat, broke with tradition and ran for a third term, which became a major issue...

, would attempt to use treaties to undermine American liberties. Conservatives cited as evidence the statement of John P. Humphrey, the first director of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights

United Nations Commission on Human Rights

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006...

What the United Nations is trying to do is revolutionary in character. Human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

are largely a matter of [the] relationship between the State and individuals, and therefore a matter which has been traditionally regarded as being within the domestic jurisdiction of states. What is now being proposed is, in effect, the creation of some super national supervision of this relationship.

Frank E. Holman testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary is a standing committee of the United States Senate, of the United States Congress. The Judiciary Committee, with 18 members, is charged with conducting hearings prior to the Senate votes on confirmation of federal judges nominated by the...

that the Bricker Amendment was needed "to eliminate the risk that through 'treaty law' our basic American rights may be bargained away in attempts to show our good neighborliness and to indicate to the rest of the world our spirit of brotherhood." W.L. McGrath, president of the Williamson Heater Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, told the Senate that the International Labor Organization, to which he had been an American delegate, was "seeking to set itself up as a sort of international legislature to formulate socialistic laws which it hopes, by the vehicle of treaty ratification, can essentially be imposed upon most of the countries of the world."

Congress considers the proposal

Republican Senator John W. Bricker

John W. Bricker

John William Bricker was a United States Senator and the 54th Governor of Ohio. A member of the Republican Party, he was the Republican nominee for Vice President in 1944.-Early life:...

, an attorney, had served as governor of Ohio and was Thomas E. Dewey's running mate in the 1944 campaign

United States presidential election, 1944

The United States presidential election of 1944 took place while the United States was preoccupied with fighting World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had been in office longer than any other president, but remained popular. Unlike 1940, there was little doubt that Roosevelt would run for...

before winning a Senate seat in the 1946 Republican landslide. Author Robert Caro

Robert Caro

Robert Allan Caro is an American journalist and author known for his celebrated biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson...

declared Senator Bricker to be "a fervent admirer" of Senators Robert Taft

Robert Taft

Robert Alphonso Taft , of the Taft political family of Cincinnati, was a Republican United States Senator and a prominent conservative statesman...

of Ohio

Ohio

, "whom he had three times backed for the presidential nomination," and Joseph McCarthy

Joseph McCarthy

Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...

of Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

, "whom he would support to the last," and stated that Bricker was "a fervent hater of foreign aid, the United Nations

United Nations

, and all those he lumped with Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...

under the contemptuous designation of 'One Worlders'. He was the embodiment of the GOP's reactionary Old Guard

Old Right (United States)

," borne out by his voting record: Americans for Democratic Action

Americans for Democratic Action

Americans for Democratic Action is an American political organization advocating progressive policies. ADA works for social and economic justice through lobbying, grassroots organizing, research and supporting progressive candidates.-History:...

gave him a "zero" rating in 1949, However, Bricker was not a doctrinaire non-interventionist; he had voted in favor of the Marshall Plan

Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...

and the North Atlantic Treaty

North Atlantic Treaty

The North Atlantic Treaty is the treaty that brought NATO into existence, signed in Washington, D.C. on 4 April 1949. The original twelve nations that signed it and thus became the founding members of NATO were:...

.

President Eisenhower disagreed about the necessity of the Amendment, writing in his diary in April 1953, "Senator Bricker wants to amend the Constitution . . . By and large the logic of the case is all against Senator Bricker, but he has gotten almost psychopathic on the subject, and a great many lawyers have taken his side of the case. This fact does not impress me very much. Lawyers have been trained to take either side of any case and make the most intelligent and impassioned defense of their adopted viewpoint."

Historians describe the Bricker Amendment as "the high water mark of the non-interventionist surge in the 1950s" and "the embodiment of the Old Guard's rage at what it viewed as twenty years of presidential usurpation of Congress's constitutional powers" which "grew out of sentiment both anti-Democrat and anti-presidential." Bricker's pressing the issue, wrote Time just before the climactic vote, was "a time-bomb threat to both G.O.P.

Republican Party (United States)

unity and White House-Congressional accord." Senator Bricker warned "the constitutional power of Congress to determine American foreign policy is at stake."

82nd Congress

In the 82nd Congress

82nd United States Congress

The Eighty-second United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1951 to January 3, 1953, during the last two years...

, Senator Bricker introduced the first version of his amendment, S.J. Res. 102, drafted by Bricker and his staff. The American Bar Association

American Bar Association

was still studying the issue of how to prevent an abuse of "treaty law" when Bricker introduced his resolution on July 17, 1951, without the ABA's involvement, but the Senator wanted to begin immediate debate on an issue he considered vital. Bricker was not trying to reverse the Yalta Agreement

Yalta Conference

The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...

, in contrast to the goals of some of his conservative colleagues; he was worried most about what might be done by the United Nations

United Nations

or under an executive agreement. A second proposal, S.J. Res 130, was introduced by Bricker on February 7, 1952, with fifty-eight co-sponsors, including every Republican except Eugene Millikin of Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

.

President Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman

was adamantly opposed to limitations on executive power and ordered every executive branch agency to report on how the Bricker Amendment would affect its work and to offer this information to the Judiciary Committee. Consequently, in its hearings, the Committee heard from representatives of the Departments of Agriculture

United States Department of Agriculture

The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...

, Commerce

United States Department of Commerce

The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...

, Defense

United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

, Labor

United States Department of Labor

The United States Department of Labor is a Cabinet department of the United States government responsible for occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, re-employment services, and some economic statistics. Many U.S. states also have such departments. The...

, and the Post Office

United States Post Office Department

The Post Office Department was the name of the United States Postal Service when it was a Cabinet department. It was headed by the Postmaster General....

, along with the Bureau of Internal Revenue

Internal Revenue Service

The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...

, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics

Federal Bureau of Narcotics

The Federal Bureau of Narcotics was an agency of the United States Department of the Treasury. Established in the Department of the Treasury by an act of June 14, 1930 consolidating the functions of the Federal Narcotics Control Board and the Narcotic Division...

. Duane Tananbaum wrote the hearings "provided the amendment's supporters with a wider forum for their argument that a constitutional amendment was needed" and gave opponents a chance to debate the issue.

Bricker's amendment was raised as an issue in his 1952 re-election campaign. Toledo

Toledo, Ohio

Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...

mayor Michael DiSalle

Michael DiSalle

Michael Vincent DiSalle was a Democratic politician from Ohio. He served as the Mayor of Toledo, Ohio and the 60th Governor of Ohio.-Early life and career:...

railed that the amendment was "an unwarranted interference with the provisions of the Constitution," but Bricker was easily elected to a second term.

83rd Congress: Consideration by the new Republican majority

Bricker introduced his proposal, S.J. Res 1, on the first day of the 83rd Congress

83rd United States Congress

The Eighty-third United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1953 to January 3, 1955, during the first two years...

and soon had sixty-three co-sponsors on a resolution much closer to the language of the amendment proposed by the American Bar Association

American Bar Association

. This time, every Republican senator, including Millikin, was a co-sponsor, as were eighteen Democrats. Including Bricker, this totaled exactly the sixty-four votes that comprised two-thirds of the full Senate, the number necessary to approve a constitutional amendment. Companion measures were introduced in the United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

, but no action was taken on them; the focus was on the Senate.

The Eisenhower Administration was caught by surprise as Sherman Adams

Sherman Adams

Llewelyn Sherman Adams was an American politician, best known as White House Chief of Staff for President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the culmination of a relatively short political career that also included a stint as Governor of New Hampshire...

, Eisenhower's Chief of Staff

White House Chief of Staff

The White House Chief of Staff is the highest ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President.The current White House Chief of Staff is Bill Daley.-History:...

, thought an agreement had been reached with Bricker to delay introduction of his amendment until after the Administration had studied the issue. "Bricker hoped to force the new administration's hand," wrote Duane Tananbaum. George E. Reedy

George Reedy

George Edward Reedy was White House Press Secretary from 1964 to 1965. Reedy served under President Lyndon B. Johnson.-Biography:...

, aide to Senate minority leader Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

of Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, said popular support for the measure made it "apparent from the start that it could not be defeated on a straight-out vote. No one could vote against the Bricker Amendment with impunity and very few could vote against it and survive at all . . . There was no hope of stopping it through direct opposition." Johnson told his aide Bobby Baker

Bobby Baker

Robert Gene Baker was a political adviser to Lyndon B. Johnson, and an organizer for the Democratic Party.-Life:Baker was the son of the Pickens postmaster and lived in a house on Hampton Avenue...

it was "the worst bill I can think of" and "it will be the bane of every president we elect."

Eisenhower privately disparaged Bricker's motives, suggesting Bricker's push for the Amendment was driven by "his one hope of achieving at least a faint immortality in American history," and considered the Amendment entirely unnecessary, telling Stephen Ambrose

Stephen Ambrose

it was "an addition to the Constitution that said you could not violate the Constitution."

Eisenhower seeks delay

Eisenhower publicly stated his opposition in his press conference of March 26, 1953: "The Bricker Amendment, as analyzed for me by the Secretary of State, would, as I understand it, in certain ways restrict the authority that the President must have, if he is to conduct the foreign affairs of this Nation effectively. . . . I do believe that there are certain features that would work to the disadvantage of our country, particularly in making it impossible for the President to work with the flexibility that he needs in this highly complicated and difficult situation." Eisenhower's phrasing, "as analyzed for me by the Secretary of State," led Bricker and other conservatives to blame Dulles for misleading Eisenhower, and raised their suspicion that the Secretary of State was a tool of Eastern internationalist interests.

Eisenhower sent Attorney General

United States Attorney General

Herbert Brownell

Herbert Brownell, Jr.

Herbert Brownell, Jr. was the Attorney General of the United States in President Eisenhower's cabinet from 1953 to 1957.-Early life:...

to meet with Bricker to try to delay consideration of the resolution while the administration studied it; Bricker refused, noting his original proposal was introduced over a year earlier in the previous session of Congress. Bricker was willing, however, to compromise on the language of an amendment, unlike Frank Holman, who was intent on a particular wording. However, the administration, particularly Dulles, irritated Bricker by refusing to offer an alternative to his resolution. Eisenhower privately continued to disparage the Amendment with strong language, calling it "a stupid blind violation of the Constitution by stupid, blind non-interventionists" and stating "if it is true that when you die the name of the things that bothered you the most are engraved on your skull, I'm sure I'll have there the mud and dirt of France during the invasion and the name of Senator Bricker."

G.O.P. infighting

Sherman Adams wrote "Eisenhower thus found himself caught in a crossfire between the Republican conservatives and the State Department

United States Department of State

The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

" and stated President Eisenhower thought the Bricker Amendment was a refusal of America "to accept the leadership of world democracy that had been thrust upon it." In 1954, Eisenhower wrote Senate majority leader William F. Knowland

William F. Knowland

William Fife Knowland was a United States politician, newspaperman, and Republican Party leader. He was a U.S. Senator representing California from 1945 to 1959. He served as Senate Majority Leader from 1953-1955, and as Minority Leader from 1955-1959. He was defeated in his 1958 run for...

of California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

stating, "Adoption of the Bricker Amendment in its present form by the Senate would be notice to our friends as well as our enemies abroad that our country intends to withdraw from its leadership in world affairs."

Despite the Amendment's popularity and large number of sponsors, Majority Leader Taft stalled the bill itself in the Judiciary Committee

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

at the behest of President Eisenhower. However, on June 10, ill health led Taft to resign as Majority Leader, and five days later the Judiciary Committee reported the measure to the full Senate. No action was taken before the session adjourned in August; debate would begin in January 1954.

The long delay allowed opposition to mobilize. Erwin Griswold

Erwin Griswold

Erwin Nathaniel Griswold was an appellate attorney who argued many cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Griswold served as Solicitor General of the United States under Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. He also served as Dean of Harvard Law School for 21 years. Several times he...

, dean of the Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School

, and Owen Roberts, retired Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the United States

, organized the Committee for the Defense of the Constitution. They were joined by such prominent Americans as attorney John W. Davis

John W. Davis

John William Davis was an American politician, diplomat and lawyer. He served as a United States Representative from West Virginia , then as Solicitor General of the United States and US Ambassador to the UK under President Woodrow Wilson...

, former Attorney General William D. Mitchell

William D. Mitchell

William DeWitt Mitchell was appointed to the position of U.S. Solicitor General by Calvin Coolidge on June 4, 1925, which he held until he was appointed to the position of U.S. Attorney General for the entirety of Herbert Hoover's Presidency.Born in Winona, Minnesota to William B...

, former Secretary of War Kenneth C. Royall

Kenneth Claiborne Royall

Kenneth Claiborne Royall was a United States Army general and the last person to hold the office of Secretary of War...

, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt

, Governor Adlai Stevenson, former President Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman

, Judge John J. Parker

John J. Parker

John Johnston Parker was a U.S. judge who failed confirmation to the Supreme Court by one vote. He was also the U.S. alternate judge at the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals and later served on the United Nations' International Law Commission.John J. Parker was born in Monroe, North Carolina,...

, former Justice Felix Frankfurter

Felix Frankfurter

Felix Frankfurter was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.-Early life:Frankfurter was born into a Jewish family on November 15, 1882, in Vienna, Austria, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Europe. He was the third of six children of Leopold and Emma Frankfurter...

, Denver Post
The Denver Post
-Ownership:The Post is the flagship newspaper of MediaNews Group Inc., founded in 1983 by William Dean Singleton and Richard Scudder. MediaNews is today one of the nation's largest newspaper chains, publisher of 61 daily newspapers and more than 120 non-daily publications in 13 states. MediaNews...

publisher Palmer Hoyt, the Reverend Harry Emerson Fosdick

Harry Emerson Fosdick

Harry Emerson Fosdick was an American clergyman. He was born in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Colgate University in 1900, and Union Theological Seminary in 1904. While attending Colgate University he joined the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1903 at the...

, socialist Norman Thomas

Norman Thomas

Norman Mattoon Thomas was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.-Early years:...

, and General Lucius D. Clay

Lucius D. Clay

General Lucius Dubignon Clay was an American officer and military governor of the United States Army known for his administration of Germany immediately after World War II. Clay was deputy to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1945; deputy military governor, Germany 1946; commander in chief, U.S....

. The Committee claimed the Amendment would give Congress too much power and make America's system to approve treaties "the most cumbersome in the world." Roberts dismissed the Amendment, declaring "we must decide whether we are to stand on the silly shibboleth

Shibboleth

A shibboleth is a custom, principle, or belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people, especially a long-standing one regarded as outmoded or no longer important...

of national security," a statement supporters of the Amendment eagerly seized upon. The Committee was joined in opposing the Amendment by the League of Women Voters

League of Women Voters

The League of Women Voters is an American political organization founded in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt during the last meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote...

, the American Association for the United Nations

United Nations Association of the United States of America

The United Nations Association of the United States of America or UNA-USA is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to building understanding of and support for the ideals and work of the United Nations among the American people. Its education, policy and advocacy programs emphasize the...

, and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York

Association of the Bar of the City of New York

The New York City Bar Association , founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a landmark building on 44th Street, between Fifth and Sixth...

, one of the few bar associations to oppose the Amendment.

Conservatives Clarence Manion, former dean of the University of Notre Dame

University of Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...

Law School, and newspaper publisher Frank Gannett

Frank Gannett

Frank Ernest Gannett is the founder of Gannett media corporation.-Biography:Gannett was born in South Bristol, New York, United States, graduated from Bolivar High School , Bolivar, NY in 1893, and graduated from Cornell University. At the age of 30, he purchased his first newspaper, the Elmira...

formed organizations to support the Amendment while a wide spectrum of groups entered the debate. Supporting the Bricker Amendment were the National Association of Attorneys General

National Association of Attorneys General

The National Association of Attorneys General is an organization of 56 state and territorial attorneys general in the United States...

, the American Legion

American Legion

The American Legion is a mutual-aid organization of veterans of the United States armed forces chartered by the United States Congress. It was founded to benefit those veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by Congress...

, the Veterans of Foreign Wars

Veterans of Foreign Wars

The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States is a congressionally chartered war veterans organization in the United States. Headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, VFW currently has 1.5 million members belonging to 7,644 posts, and is the largest American organization of combat...

, the Marine Corps League

Marine Corps League

The Marine Corps League is the only Congressionally chartered United States Marine Corps-related veterans organization in the United States. Its Congressional Charter was approved by the 75th U.S. Congress and signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 4, 1937. The organization credits...

, National Sojourners, the Catholic War Veterans, the Kiwanis

Kiwanis

Kiwanis International is an international, coeducational service club founded in 1915. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Current membership is 240,000 members in 7,700 clubs in 80 nations...

, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

United States Chamber of Commerce

The United States Chamber of Commerce is an American lobbying group representing the interests of many businesses and trade associations. It is not an agency of the United States government....

, the National Grange, the American Farm Bureau Federation

American Farm Bureau Federation

The American Farm Bureau Federation , commonly referred to as the Farm Bureau, is a nonprofit organization and the largest general farm organization in the United States...

, the Daughters of the American Revolution

Daughters of the American Revolution

The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership organization for women who are descended from a person involved in United States' independence....

, the The Colonial Dames of America

The Colonial Dames of America

The Colonial Dames of America is an American organization composed of women who are descended from an ancestor who lived in British-America from 1607–1775, and was of service to the colonies by either holding public office, being in the military, or serving the Colonies in some other "eligible"...

, the National Association of Evangelicals

National Association of Evangelicals

The National Association of Evangelicals is a fellowship of member denominations, churches, organizations, and individuals. Its goal is to honor God by connecting and representing evangelicals in the United States. Today it works in four main areas: Church & Faith Partners, Government Relations,...

, the American Medical Association

American Medical Association

The American Medical Association , founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of medical doctors and medical students in the United States.-Scope and operations:...

, the General Federation of Women's Clubs

General Federation of Women's Clubs

The General Federation of Women's Clubs , founded in 1890, is an international women's organization dedicated to community improvement by enhancing the lives of others through volunteer service...

, and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons is a politically conservative American non-profit organization founded in 1943 to "fight socialized medicine and to fight the government takeover of medicine." The group was reported to have approximately 4,000 members in 2005, and 3,000 in...

. In opposition were Americans for Democratic Action

Americans for Democratic Action

, the American Jewish Congress

American Jewish Congress

The American Jewish Congress describes itself as an association of Jewish Americans organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts....

, the American Federation of Labor

American Federation of Labor

The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...

, B'nai B'rith

B'nai B'rith

B'nai B'rith International |Covenant]]" is the oldest continually operating Jewish service organization in the world. It was initially founded as the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith in New York City, on , 1843, by Henry Jones and 11 others....

, the United World Federalists

Citizens for Global Solutions

Citizens for Global Solutions, a grassroots membership organization in the United States, envisions a "future in which nations work together to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms and solve the problems facing humanity that no nation can solve alone" and to "building the political will in...

, the American Civil Liberties Union

American Civil Liberties Union

The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...

, and the American Association of University Women

American Association of University Women

The American Association of University Women advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. It was founded in 1882 by Ellen Swallow Richards and Marion Talbot...

— groups Holman characterized as "eastern seaboard internationalists."

Eisenhower aided by Democrats

Faced with essentially united opposition from his own Party's Senate caucus, Eisenhower needed the help of Democrats to defeat the Amendment. Caro summarized the problem: "Defeating the amendment and thereby preserving the power of the presidency—his first objective—could not be accomplished even if he united his party's liberal and moderate senators against it; there simply were not enough of them. He would have to turn conservative Senators against it too, conservatives who were at the moment wholeheartedly for it—and not just Democratic conservatives but at least a few members of the Republican Old Guard." President Eisenhower continued his opposition. In January he claimed that the Bricker Amendment would fatally weaken the bargaining position of the United States because the states would be involved in foreign policy, recalling the divisions under the Articles of Confederation

Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation, formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement among the 13 founding states that legally established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution...

.

Before the Second Session of the 83rd Congress convened, the Amendment "went through a complex and incomprehensible series of changes as various Senators struggled to find a precise wording that would satisfy both the President and Bricker." In fact, President Eisenhower himself in January 1954 said that nobody understood the Bricker Amendment but his position "was clear; he opposed any amendment that would reduce the President's power to conduct foreign policy." In his opposition to the Amendment, Eisenhower obtained the help of Senate Minority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

, who persuaded Senator Walter F. George

Walter F. George

Walter Franklin George was an American politician from the state of Georgia. He was a long-time United States Senator and was President pro tempore. He was a Democrat.-Early years:...

of Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

to sponsor his own proposal in order to sap support from Senator Bricker's. The George Substitute was introduced on January 27, 1954, and especially infuriated Bricker since George also wanted limits on treaties. George warned in the Senate "I do not want a president of the U.S. to conclude an executive agreement which will make it unlawful for me to kill a cat in the back alley of my lot at night and I do not want the President of the U.S. to make a treaty with India which would preclude me from butchering a cow in my own pasture." Senator George was ideal as an opponent as he was a hero to conservatives of both parties for his opposition to the New Deal

New Deal

and his survival of President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

's unsuccessful effort to purge him when he sought re-election in 1938. "Democrats and Republicans alike respected him and recognized his influence."

Eisenhower worked to prevent a vote, telling Republican Senators that he agreed that President Roosevelt had done things he would not have, but that the Amendment would not have prevented the Yalta Agreement

Yalta Conference

. By the time the Senate finally voted on the Bricker Amendment on February 26, thirteen of the nineteen Democrats who had co-sponsored it had withdrawn their support at the urging of Senators Johnson and George. The original version of S.J. Res. 1 failed 42–50. By a 61-30 vote, the Senate agreed to substitute George's language for Bricker's— if only ninety-one senators voted, sixty-one was the necessary two-thirds vote for final approval. Senator Herbert H. Lehman

Herbert H. Lehman

Herbert Henry Lehman was a Democratic Party politician from New York. He was the 45th Governor of New York from 1933 to 1942, and represented New York in the United States Senate from 1950 to 1957.-Lehman Brothers:...

of New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

said in the debate "what we are doing is one of the most dangerous and inexcusable things that any great legislative body can do." However, Johnson had planned carefully and had several votes in reserve. When revised Amendments came to a vote, with Vice President

Vice President of the United States

The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...

Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

presiding over the Senate, Senator Harley M. Kilgore

Harley M. Kilgore

Harley Martin Kilgore was a United States Senator from West Virginia.Born in Brown, West Virginia, he attended the public schools and graduated from the law department of West Virginia University at Morgantown in 1914 and was admitted to the bar the same year.He taught school in Hancock, West...

of West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

arrived to cast the deciding vote of "nay." The measure was defeated 60-31. In the final count, thirty-two Republicans voted for the revised Bricker Amendment and fourteen voted against.

Senator Bricker was embittered by the defeat. "By the mid-1950s," wrote the Senator's biographer, "Bricker had become alienated from the mainstream of his own party . . . fulminating on the far right of the political spectrum." Decades after his defeat he was still furious. "Ike did it!" he said. "He killed my amendment."

Aftermath

Senator Bricker introduced another proposal later in the 83rd Congress and proposed similar constitutional amendments in the 84th and 85th Congresses. While hearings were held in the 84th and 85th Congresses, the full Senate took no action and the idea of amending the Constitution was never again seriously considered. In part, this was because the Supreme Court issued rulings that undercut arguments for it, notably in Reid v. Covert
Reid v. Covert
Reid v. Covert, , is a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution supersedes international treaties ratified by the United States Senate...

.

The Supreme Court in 1957 declared that the United States could not abrogate the rights guaranteed to citizens in the Bill of Rights through international agreements. Reid v. Covert
Reid v. Covert
Reid v. Covert, , is a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution supersedes international treaties ratified by the United States Senate...

and Kinsella v. Krueger concerned the prosecution of two servicemen's wives who killed their husbands abroad and were, under the status of forces agreements in place, tried and convicted in American courts-martial

Court-martial

A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...

. The Court found the Congress had no constitutional authority to subject servicemen's dependents to the Uniform Code of Military Justice

Uniform Code of Military Justice

The Uniform Code of Military Justice , is the foundation of military law in the United States. It is was established by the United States Congress in accordance with the authority given by the United States Constitution in Article I, Section 8, which provides that "The Congress shall have Power . ....

and overturned the convictions. Justice Hugo Black

Hugo Black

Hugo Lafayette Black was an American politician and jurist. A member of the Democratic Party, Black represented Alabama in the United States Senate from 1927 to 1937, and served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1937 to 1971. Black was nominated to the Supreme...

's opinion for the Court declared:
In Seery v. United States the government argued that an executive agreement allowed it to confiscate property in Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

owned by an American citizen without compensation. But this was rejected, the Court of Claims

United States Court of Claims

The Court of Claims was a federal court that heard claims against the United States government. It was established in 1855 as the Court of Claims, renamed in 1948 to the United States Court of Claims , and abolished in 1982....

writing "there can be no doubt that an executive agreement, not being a transaction which is even mentioned in the Constitution, can impair constitutional rights."

The United States ultimately ratified the U.N.'s Genocide Convention in 1986. The Convention was signed with reservation

Reservation (law)

A reservation in international law is a caveat to a state's acceptance of a treaty. By the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties , a reservation is defined as a...

s, which prevented the law being enacted if it contradicted the Constitution. Several states expressed concern that this would undermine the provisions of the convention.

The Bricker Amendment is occasionally revived in Congress. For example, Congressman

United States House of Representatives

Ron Paul

Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...

proposed the Bricker Amendment during the 1970s ; and in 1997, Representative

United States House of Representatives

Helen Chenoweth

Helen Chenoweth-Hage

Helen P. Chenoweth-Hage, born Helen Margaret Palmer was a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Idaho, the first Republican woman to represent that state in the United States Congress....

Republican Party (United States)

–Idaho

Idaho

) offered her version of the Bricker Amendment in the 105th Congress

105th United States Congress

The One Hundred Fifth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1997 to January 3, 1999, during the fifth and...

. Both bills died in committee without a hearing.

Timeline

Timeline of dates important in consideration of the Amendment:

March 4, 1789. The United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

comes into force.
October 24, 1945. The United Nations Charter
United Nations Charter
The Charter of the United Nations is the foundational treaty of the international organization called the United Nations. It was signed at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, United States, on 26 June 1945, by 50 of the 51 original member countries...

comes into force.
1946. United Nations Commission on Human Rights
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006...

created.
February 25, 1948. The American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...

's House of Delegates votes for its Committee on Peace and Law Through the United Nations to study the proposed U.N. conventions.
September 9, 1948. The ABA House of Delegates votes to oppose the Covenant on Human Rights.
September 17, 1948. American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...

president Frank E. Holman
Frank E. Holman
Frank Ezekiel Holman was an American attorney who after his election as president of the American Bar Association in 1948 led an effort to amend the United States Constitution to limit the power of treaties and executive agreements. Holman's work led to the Bricker Amendment.Holman was born in...

begins his campaign against "treaty law" with a speech to the State Bar of California
State Bar of California
The State Bar of California is California's official bar association. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, and prescribing appropriate discipline...

in Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...

.
February 1, 1949. The ABA House of Delegates votes to oppose the Genocide Convention.
June 16, 1949. President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

sends the Genocide Convention
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948 as General Assembly Resolution 260. The Convention entered into force on 12 January 1951. It defines genocide in legal terms, and is the culmination of...

to the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

for ratification.
July 17, 1951. Senator John W. Bricker
John W. Bricker
John William Bricker was a United States Senator and the 54th Governor of Ohio. A member of the Republican Party, he was the Republican nominee for Vice President in 1944.-Early life:...

(R-Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

) introduces S. Res. 177, a sense of the Senate resolution against the Convenant on Human Rights, calling it "a covenant on human slavery or subservience to government."
September 14, 1951. Senator Bricker introduces the first version of his constitutional amendment, S.J. Res. 102.
February 7, 1952. Senator Bricker introduces a revised proposal, S.J. Res. 130, with 58 co-sponsors, including every Republican except Senator Eugene Millikin of Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

.
February 22, 1952. The ABA House of Delegates vote to support a constitutional amendment to limit the treaty power.
April 11, 1952. John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism throughout the world...

tells the American Bar Association's regional meeting in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

of the dangers of treaties.
May 21, 1952. Hearings begin before the Senate Judiciary Committee
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary is a standing committee of the United States Senate, of the United States Congress. The Judiciary Committee, with 18 members, is charged with conducting hearings prior to the Senate votes on confirmation of federal judges nominated by the...

on S.J. Res. 130.
June 13, 1952. The Judiciary Committee hearings conclude.
July 7, 1952. The Second Session of the 82nd Congress
82nd United States Congress
The Eighty-second United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1951 to January 3, 1953, during the last two years...

adjourns without action on S.J. Res 130.
September 15, 1952. The ABA House of Delegates votes to endorse S.J. Res. 122, introduced by Senator Pat McCarran
Pat McCarran
Patrick Anthony McCarran was a Democratic United States Senator from Nevada from 1933 until 1954, and was noted for his strong anti-Communist stance.-Early life and career:...

(D-Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

), to limit executive agreements.
November 4, 1952. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

is elected President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

. Republican majorities are elected to both the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

and the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

.
January 3, 1953. The 83rd Congress
83rd United States Congress
The Eighty-third United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1953 to January 3, 1955, during the first two years...

convenes.
January 7, 1953. Senator Bricker introduces another version of his constitutional amendment, S.J. Res. 1.
January 20, 1953. President Eisenhower is inaugurated.
February 4, 1953. Senator George Smathers
George Smathers
George Armistead Smathers was an American lawyer and politician who represented the state of Florida in the United States Senate for eighteen years, from 1951 until 1969, as a member of the Democratic Party.-Early life:...

(R-Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

) adds his name as a co-sponsor of S.J. Res. 1, giving it 64 sponsors, exactly the two-thirds vote necessary for passage.
February 16, 1953. Senator Arthur V. Watkins
Arthur Vivian Watkins
Arthur Vivian Watkins was a Republican U.S. Senator from 1947 to 1959. He was influential as a proponent of terminating federal recognition of American Indian tribes.-Biography:...

(R-Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

) introduces S.J. Res. 43, which was the text endorsed by the ABA.
February 18, 1953. Hearings begin before the Senate Judiciary Committee
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary is a standing committee of the United States Senate, of the United States Congress. The Judiciary Committee, with 18 members, is charged with conducting hearings prior to the Senate votes on confirmation of federal judges nominated by the...

on S.J. Res 1 and 43.
February 23, 1953. Holman meets with President Eisenhower, who promises he will take no public stance on the Bricker Amendment.
March 26, 1953. President Eisenhower publicly declares his opposition to the Bricker Amendment.
April 11, 1953. The Judiciary Committee hearings end.
June 10, 1953. Majority Leader Robert Taft
Robert Taft
Robert Alphonso Taft , of the Taft political family of Cincinnati, was a Republican United States Senator and a prominent conservative statesman...

(R-Ohio) resigns his leadership post because of ill-health. He is replaced by Senator William F. Knowland
William F. Knowland
William Fife Knowland was a United States politician, newspaperman, and Republican Party leader. He was a U.S. Senator representing California from 1945 to 1959. He served as Senate Majority Leader from 1953-1955, and as Minority Leader from 1955-1959. He was defeated in his 1958 run for...

(R-California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

).
June 15, 1953. With Senator Taft no longer preventing it, the Judiciary Committee reports S.J. Res. 1 to the full Senate on a vote of 9-5.
July 1, 1953. President Eisenhower at his weekly press conference said he did not believe a treaty could override the Constitution, but he would support a Constitutional amendment to make that explicit.
July 17, 1953. President Eisenhower and his cabinet discuss the Amendment. He is told by Vice President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

and Attorney General Herbert Brownell
Herbert Brownell, Jr.
Herbert Brownell, Jr. was the Attorney General of the United States in President Eisenhower's cabinet from 1953 to 1957.-Early life:...

that the Amendment will split the Republican Party.
July 21, 1953. Senate Republicans meet to discuss the issue with Attorney General Brownell, Secretary Dulles, and Senate Bricker. A compromise is reached, Bricker believes.
July 22, 1953. Senator Knowland introduces a substitute to S.J. Res. 1 and President Eisenhower announces his support for it. Senator Bricker feels betrayed.
August 3, 1953. The First Session of the 83rd Congress adjourns.
January 6, 1954. The Second Session of the 83rd Congress convenes.
January 20, 1954. Debate begins on the Bricker Amendment in the Senate.
January 25, 1954. President Eisenhower writes Knowland in opposition to the Amendment. Six hundred members of the 300,000 member Vigilant Women for the Bricker Amendment arrive in Washington to lobby Congress.
January 27, 1954. Senator Walter F. George
Walter F. George
Walter Franklin George was an American politician from the state of Georgia. He was a long-time United States Senator and was President pro tempore. He was a Democrat.-Early years:...

(D-Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

) introduces his substitute to S.J. Res. 1.
January 29, 1954. Senator Pat McCarran
Pat McCarran
Patrick Anthony McCarran was a Democratic United States Senator from Nevada from 1933 until 1954, and was noted for his strong anti-Communist stance.-Early life and career:...

(D-Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

) introduces his substitute to S.J. Res. 1.
January 31, 1954. Senator Bricker says on Meet the Press
Meet the Press
Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television series in American broadcasting history, despite bearing little resemblance to the original format of the program seen in its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been...

the George Substitute met "the cardinal principles" of his original proposal.
February 2, 1954. Senator Homer S. Ferguson
Homer S. Ferguson
Homer Samuel Ferguson was a United States Senator from Michigan. He was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Harrison City, Pennsylvania to parents Samuel Ferguson and Margaret Bush Homer Samuel Ferguson (February 25, 1889 December 17, 1982) was a United States Senator from Michigan. He was born in...

(R-Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

) introduces an amendment to S.J. Res. 1. Senator Francis H. Case
Francis H. Case
Francis Higbee Case was an American journalist and politician who served for 25 years as a member of the United States Congress from South Dakota. He was a Republican.-Biography:...

(R-South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...

) introduces another amendment.
February 4, 1954. Senator Bricker proposes an amendment to S.J. Res. 1.
February 15, 1954. The first section of the Ferguson amendment is adopted, 62-20.
February 16, 1954. The third section of the Ferguson amendment is adopted, 72-16.
February 17, 1954. The second section of the Ferguson amendment is adopted, 44-43.
February 25, 1954. The Bricker substitute fails, 50-42.
February 26, 1954. The George substitute is adopted, 61-30. The amended Bricker Amendment fails on final passage, 61-30, losing by one vote.
August 5, 1954. Senator Bricker introduces a revised proposal, S.J. Res. 181.
December 2, 1954. The 83rd Congress adjourns.
January 5, 1955. The 84th Congress
84th United States Congress
The Eighty-fourth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1955 to January 3, 1957, during the third and...

convenes.
January 6, 1955. Senator Bricker introduces his amendment as S.J. Res. 1.
April 27, 1955. The Senate Judiciary Committee begins hearings on S.J. Res. 1.
May 12, 1955. The Judiciary Committee hearings end.
March 27, 1956. The Senate Judiciary Committee reports a revised version of S.J. Res. 1 to the full Senate.
July 27, 1956. The 84th Congress adjourns without acting on S.J. Res. 1.
January 3, 1957. The 85th Congress
85th United States Congress
The Eighty-fifth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1957 to January 3, 1959, during the fifth and sixth...

convenes.
January 7, 1957. Senator Bricker again introduces his constitutional amendment as S.J. Res. 3.
June 25, 1957. The Senate Judiciary Committee hold a one-day hearing on S.J. Res. 3.
August 24, 1958. The 85th Congress adjourns.
November 4, 1958. Senator Bricker is defeated for re-election to a third term by Stephen M. Young
Stephen M. Young
Stephen Marvin Young was an American politician of the Democratic Party from Ohio. He was a United States Senator from Ohio from 1958 until 1971....

.
January 3, 1959. Senator Bricker's term ends.

Table of cases

Asakura v. City of Seattle, 265 U.S. 332 (1924).http://www.justia.us/us/265/332/
Botiller v. Dominguez
Botiller v. Dominguez
Botiller v. Dominguez, 130 U.S. 238 , was a decision by the United States Supreme Court dealing with the validity of Spanish or Mexican land grants in the Mexican Cession, the region of the present day southwestern United States that was ceded to the U.S...

, 130 U.S. 238 (1889). http://www.justia.us/us/130/238/
The Cherokee Tobacco, 78 U.S. (11 Wall.) 616 (1870). http://www.justia.us/us/78/616/
The Chinese Exclusion Case (Chae Chan Ping v. United States), 130 U.S. 581 (1889). http://www.justia.us/us/130/581/
Chirac v. Chirac's Lessee, 15 U.S. (2 Wheat.) 259 (1817). http://www.justia.us/us/15/259/index.html
De Geoffroy v. Riggs, 133 U.S. 258 (1890) http://www.justia.us/us/133/258/index.html
Doe v. Braden, 57 U.S. (16 How.) 635 (1835). http://www.justia.us/us/57/635/case.html
Fairfax's Devisee v. Hunter's Lessee
Fairfax's Devisee v. Hunter's Lessee
Fairfax's Devisee v. Hunter's Lessee, 11 U.S. 603 , was a United States Supreme Court case arising out of the acquisition of Fairfax land in the Northern Neck of the state of Virginia by the family and associates of John Marshall, including Robert Morris...

, 11 U.S. (7 Cran.) 603 (1813). http://www.justia.us/us/11/603/index.html
Foster v. Nielson, 27 U.S. (2 Pet.) 253 (1829). http://www.justia.us/us/27/253/index.html
Fujii v. State, 217 P.2d 481 (Cal. App. 2d 1950), rehearing denied 218 P.2d 596 (Cal. App. 2d 1950), reversed 242 P.2d 617 (1952).
Garcia v. Pan American Airways, 269 App. Div. 287, 55 N.Y.S. 2d 317 (1945), affirmed 295 N.Y. 852, 67 N.E. 2d 257.
Hauenstein v. Lynham, 100 U.S. 483 (1879). http://www.justia.us/us/100/483/
Higginson v. Mein, 8 U.S. (4 Cran.) 415 (1808). http://www.justia.us/us/8/415/index.html
Hopkirk v. Bell, 7 U.S. (3 Cran.) 454 (1806). http://www.justia.us/us/7/454/
Kemp v. Rubin, 69 N.Y.S.2d 680 (Sup. Ct. Queens 1947).
Kinsella v. Krueger
Reid v. Covert
Reid v. Covert, , is a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution supersedes international treaties ratified by the United States Senate...

, 351 U.S. 470 (1956) http://www.justia.us/us/351/470/index.html, reversed on rehearing, 354 U.S. 1 (1957)http://www.justia.us/us/354/1/index.html.http://www.justia.us/us/351/487/index.html
Lee v. Pan American Airways, 89 N.Y.S. 2d 888, 300 N.Y. 761, 89 N.E. 2d 258 (1949), cert. denied 339 U.S. 920 (1950).
Martin v. Hunter's Lessee
Martin v. Hunter's Lessee
Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, , was a landmark United States Supreme Court case decided on March 20, 1816. It was the first case to assert ultimate Supreme Court authority over state courts in matters of federal law.-Background:...

, 14 U.S. (1 Wheat.) 603 (1816)
Missouri v. Holland
Missouri v. Holland
Missouri v. Holland, 252 U.S. 416 , the United States Supreme Court held that protection of its quasi-sovereign right to regulate the taking of game is a sufficient jurisdictional basis, apart from any pecuniary interest, for a bill by a State to enjoin enforcement of federal regulations over the...

, 252 U.S. 416 (1920). http://www.justia.us/us/252/416/index.html
Orr v. Hodgson, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 453 (1819). http://www.justia.us/us/17/453/index.html
Reid v. Covert
Reid v. Covert
Reid v. Covert, , is a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution supersedes international treaties ratified by the United States Senate...

, 351 U.S. 487 (1956), reversed on rehearing, 354 U.S. 1 (1957)http://www.justia.us/us/354/1/index.html.http://www.justia.us/us/351/487/index.html
Rice v. Sioux City Memorial Park Cemetery, 245 Iowa 147, 60 N.W.2d 110 (1954), cert dismissed as improvidently granted, 349 U.S. 70 (1955) http://www.justia.us/us/349/70/index.html
Seery v. United States, 127 F. Supp. 601 (Ct. Claims 1955).
Sipes v. McGhee, 316 Mich. 615 (1947).
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts v. New Haven, 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.) 464 (1823). http://www.justia.us/us/21/464/index.html
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts v. Town of Pawlet, 29 U.S. 480 (1830). http://www.justia.us/us/29/480/case.html
State v. McCullagh, 153 Pac. 557 (Kan. 557).
State v. Sawyer, 94 Atl. 886 (Maine 1915).
Terrace v. Thompson, 263 U.S. 197 (1923). http://www.justia.us/us/263/197/
United States v. Belmont, 301 U.S. 324 (1937)http://www.justia.us/us/301/324/index.html
United States v. Guy W. Capps, Inc., 100 F.Supp. 30 (E.D. Va. 1952), affirmed 204 F.2d. 655 (4th 1953), affirmed 348 U.S. 296 (1955)http://www.justia.us/us/348/296/index.html
United States v. McCullagh. 221 Fed 288 (D Kan. 1915).
United States v. Pink
United States v. Pink
United States v. Pink, 315 U.S. 203 , was a United States Supreme Court decision related to the Litvinov Assignment. The United States sued Pink, the Superintendent of Insurance of the State of New York for claims regarding the First Russian Insurance Company.According to the facts of the case,...

, 315 U.S. 203 (1942) http://www.justia.us/us/315/203/index.html
United States v. Shauver, 214 Fed 154 (E.D Ark. 1914).
United States v. Wong Kim Ark
United States v. Wong Kim Ark
United States v. Wong Kim Ark, , was a United States Supreme Court decision that set an important legal precedent about the role of jus soli as a factor in determining a person's claim to United States citizenship...

, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) http://supreme.justia.com/us/169/649/
Ware v. Hylton
Ware v. Hylton
Ware v. Hylton is the short name of a United States Supreme Court case where a divided court ruled that an article in the Treaty of Paris, which provided that debtors on both sides should meet no lawful impediment when recovering bona fide debts, took precedence and overruled a Virginia law passed...

, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 199 (1796). http://www.justia.us/us/3/199/index.html
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, , also commonly referred to as The Steel Seizure Case, was a United States Supreme Court decision that limited the power of the President of the United States to seize private property in the absence of either specifically enumerated authority under Article...

, 343 U.S. 569 (1952). http://www.justia.us/us/343/579/index.html

Table of statutes, treaties, and international agreements

An Act Concerning Aliens. Act of June 25, 1798, ch. 58, 1 Stat. 570.
An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes against the United States. Act of July 14, 1798, ch. 74, 1 Stat. 596.
An Act Respecting Alien Enemies. Act of July 6, 1798, ch. 66, 1 Stat. 577.
An Act to Establish a Uniform Rule of Naturalization. Act of June 18, 1798, ch. 54, 1 Stat. 566.
An Act to Establish the Post-Office and Post Roads Within the United States. Act of February 20, 1792. ch. 7. 1 Stat. 232.
Administrative Agreement Under Article III of the Security Treaty Between the United States of America and Japan. Agreement of February 28, 1952. 3 UST 3343. TIAS 2492.
Convention for the Protection of Migratory Birds of August 16, 1916, T.S. No. 628, 39 Stat. 1702.
Definitive Treaty of Peace Between the United States of America and His Britannic Majesty. Treaty of September 3, 1783. 8 Stat. 80.
Executive Agreement Between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Respecting Jurisdiction Over Criminal Offenses Committed by Armed Forces of July 27, 1942. 57 Stat. 1193, E.A.S. 355. Enacted in Britain as United States of America (Victory Forces Act) 1942, 5&6 Geo. 6, c. 31.
Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987, also known as the Proxmire Act, Pub. L. 100–606, Act of November 4, 1988, 102 Stat. 3045, codified as et seq.
Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Act of July 3, 1918, ch. 148, 40 Stat. 755, 18 U.S.C.§703.
Neutrality Act of 1935. Act of August 31, 1935, ch. 837, 49 Stat. 1081.
Neutrality Act of 1936. Act of February 18, 1936, ch. 106, 49 Stat. 1153.
Neutrality Act of 1937. Act of May 1, 1937, ch. 146, 50 Stat. 121.
The United Nations Charter. 59 Stat. 1031, T.S. 993.

Select bibliography

This list contains only works with significant content related to the Bricker Amendment.

John W. Bricker. "John W. Bricker Reflects Upon the Fight for the Bricker Amendment". Edited by Marvin R. Zahniser. Ohio History. Vol. 87, no. 4. Autumn 1978. 322–333. http://publications.ohiohistory.org/ohstemplate.cfm?action=detail&Page=0087322.html&StartPage=322&EndPage=333&volume=87¬es=&newtitle=Volume%2087%20Page%20322
Robert A. Caro. The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. ISBN 0-394-52836-0.
Richard O. Davies. Defender of the Old Guard: John Bricker and American Politics. Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

: The Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...

Press, 1993.
Frank E. Holman
Frank E. Holman
Frank Ezekiel Holman was an American attorney who after his election as president of the American Bar Association in 1948 led an effort to amend the United States Constitution to limit the power of treaties and executive agreements. Holman's work led to the Bricker Amendment.Holman was born in...

. The Life and Career of a Western Lawyer, 1886–1961. Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

: Port City Press, 1963.
Frank E. Holman
Frank E. Holman
Frank Ezekiel Holman was an American attorney who after his election as president of the American Bar Association in 1948 led an effort to amend the United States Constitution to limit the power of treaties and executive agreements. Holman's work led to the Bricker Amendment.Holman was born in...

. The Story of the "Bricker Amendment." New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

: Fund for Constitutional Government, 1954.
Nelson Richards. The Bricker Amendment and Congress's Failure to Check the Inflation of the Executive's Foreign Affairs Powers, 1951-1954, 94 Cal. L. Rev. 175 (2006).
Duane Tananbaum. The Bricker Amendment Controversy: A Test of Eisenhower's
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

Political Leadership. Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...

: Cornell University Press
Cornell University Press
The Cornell University Press, established in 1869 but inactive from 1884 to 1930, was the first university publishing enterprise in the United States.A division of Cornell University, it is housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage....

, 1988.
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Treaties and Executive Agreements: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, Eighty-second Congress
82nd United States Congress
The Eighty-second United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1951 to January 3, 1953, during the last two years...

, Second Session, on S.J. Res 130, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Relating to the Making of Treaties and Executive Agreements. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office
United States Government Printing Office
The United States Government Printing Office is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States federal government. The office prints documents produced by and for the federal government, including the Supreme Court, the Congress, the Executive Office of the President, executive...

, 1952.
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. Treaties and Executive Agreements: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, Eighty-third Congress
83rd United States Congress
The Eighty-third United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1953 to January 3, 1955, during the first two years...

, Second Session, on S.J. Res 1, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Relating to the Making of Treaties and Executive Agreements, and S.J. Res 43, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Relating to the Legal Effects of Certain Treaties. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office
United States Government Printing Office
The United States Government Printing Office is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States federal government. The office prints documents produced by and for the federal government, including the Supreme Court, the Congress, the Executive Office of the President, executive...

, 1953.
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Constitutional Amendment Relative to Treaties and Executive Agreements, 83rd Congress
83rd United States Congress
The Eighty-third United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1953 to January 3, 1955, during the first two years...

, 1st session. Senate Report 412. Calendar 408. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office
United States Government Printing Office
The United States Government Printing Office is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States federal government. The office prints documents produced by and for the federal government, including the Supreme Court, the Congress, the Executive Office of the President, executive...

, 1953.
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. Treaties and Executive Agreements: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, Eighty-fourth Congress
84th United States Congress
The Eighty-fourth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1955 to January 3, 1957, during the third and...

, First Session, on S.J. Res 1, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Relating to the Legal Effects of Certain Treaties and Other International Agreements. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office
United States Government Printing Office
The United States Government Printing Office is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States federal government. The office prints documents produced by and for the federal government, including the Supreme Court, the Congress, the Executive Office of the President, executive...

, 1955.
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. Treaties and Executive Agreements: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-fifth Congress
85th United States Congress
The Eighty-fifth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1957 to January 3, 1959, during the fifth and sixth...

, First Session, on S.J. Res 3, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Relating to the Legal Effect of Certain Treaties and Other International Agreements. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office
United States Government Printing Office
The United States Government Printing Office is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States federal government. The office prints documents produced by and for the federal government, including the Supreme Court, the Congress, the Executive Office of the President, executive...

, 1958.

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