Gerard Magliocca has an interesting post on the powers exercised by the 39th and 40th Congresses after the Civil War. His list of the powers they exercised is worth repeating:
Consider some of what Congress did between 1865 and 1868:
1. Excluded the ex-Confederate States from the House and Senate.
2. Imposed martial law on many of those states until they ratified the Fourteenth Amendment.
3. Reduced the membership of the Supreme Court to seven members.
4. Stripped the Court of jurisdiction to hear Ex Parte McCardle.
5. Enacted the Second Reconstruction Act when seventeen states were not represented in Congress.
6. Impeached the President.
7. Removed the President’s authority to fire Cabinet members.
8. Ruled that states could retract a no vote on ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment but not a yes vote.
I love investigations of the original meaning of the original Constitution, but the questions that arise out of the Reconstruction Amendments are much harder. Even whether the 14th Amendment is constitutional is an extremely difficult question.
Posted at 8:14 AM