assisted in the trial just before Christmas. The case was conducted for the State by Attorney General J. Lindsay Spencer. Judge Heuisler gave an adverse decision on Jan. 29, 1921. The case was taken to the Court of Appeals and set for April 7. The decision of the lower court was sustained—that "the power to amend the Constitution of the United States granted by Article V is without limit except as to the words 'equal suffrage in the Senate.'.... From all the exhibits and other evidence submitted the court is of the opinion that there was due, legal and proper ratification of the amendment by the required number of State Legislatures."
This case also went to the U. S. Supreme Court and there both of them rested. Meanwhile millions of women voted in the general election on Nov. 2, 1920, and in the State and local elections which followed through 1921, and the cases were almost forgotten. Finally in February, 1922, the court heard the arguments, the Government represented by Solicitor General James M. Beck. On the 27th it handed down its decision on the two cases. It upheld the authority of Congress under the Constitution of the United States to submit the amendment; declared that "the validity of the 15th Amendment had been recognized for half a century'; that "the Federal Constitution transcends any limitations sought to be imposed by the State"; that "the Secretary of State having issued the proclamation the amendment had become a part of the National Constitution."
This was the decision of the highest legal authority, from which there was no appeal.
