Rebecca Mcdowell Cook v. Donald J. Gralike and Mike Harman (531 U.S. 510)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 28, 2001 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 531 U.S. 510 · 121 S. Ct. 1029
- Decided
- February 28, 2001
- Term
- October Term 2000
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Stevens
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
- Constitutional ruling
- State/territorial law held unconstitutional
Opinion excerpt
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. In U. S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U. S. 779 (1995), we reviewed a challenge to an Arkansas law that prohibited the name of an otherwise eligible candidate for the United States Congress from appearing on the general election ballot if he or she had already served three terms in the House of Representatives or two terms in the Senate. We held that the ballot restriction was an indirect attempt to impose term limits on congressional incumbents that violated the Qualifications Clauses in Article I of the Constitution rather than a permissible exercise of the State’s power to regulate the “Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives” within the meaning of Article I, §4, cl. 1. In response to that decision, the voters of Missouri adopted in 1996 an amendment to Article VIII of their State Constitution designed to lead to the adoption of a specified “Congressional Term Limits Amendment” to the Federal Constitution. At issue in this case is the constitutionality of Article VIII. I Article VIII “instruct^]” each Member of Missouri’s congressional delegation “to use all of his or her delegated powers to pass the Congressional Term Limits Amendment” set forth in §16 of the Article. Mo. Const., Art. VIII, §17(1). That proposed amendment would limit service in the United States Congress to.…
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