why did attorney general katzenbach call the resolution the functional equivalent

by Corbin Brown 3 min read

What did Katzenbach learn from his experience with Congress?

Yet from his own experiences in dealing with Vietnam, it taught Katzenbach that the president alone, “simply cannot hold the overwhelming public support he needs for any length of time without the strong support of Congress.”

What was Katzenbach’s case?

Senators understood him to mean that Congress had no effective role in the decision of whether the nation went to war and took great offense. But Katzenbach was no ordinary witness.

Who is Michael Katzenbach?

But Katzenbach was no ordinary witness. He had been Attorney General before moving to State having served in the Department of Justice throughout the Kennedy Administration as head of the elite Office of Legal Council and then as Deputy Attorney General.

How did South Carolina v Katzenbach affect the Civil Rights Movement?

South Carolina v. Katzenbach was a watershed moment for the Civil Rights Movement, allowing 800,000 African-Americans to register to vote between 1964 and 1967. A more conservative Court in 2013 undermined the power of Katzenbach by striking down the Voting Rights Act because it was based on old data.

Justice for All

Should bedrock ideas such as equality under the law be for everyone? Does it make sense that protections against discrimination apply only to some? This is the conundrum the Supreme Court was faced with in Katzenbach v. McClung (1964).

Facts of the Case

Ollie's Barbecue, owned by Ollie McClung, was a popular restaurant that operated in Birmingham, Alabama. Situated just off a state highway and not far from an interstate highway, it catered to locals as well as interstate travelers. The restaurant purchased roughly half of its food out of state in a given year.

Background

At first blush, a private entity does not come under federal enforcement of Constitutional rights, nor do patrons of private businesses enjoy constitutional protections against the acts of their owners. Why? In part because of the concept of federalism, which grants specific powers to a central government but limits that power to those areas.

Issue and Decision

The issue before the court was whether the commerce clause gave the federal government the right to enforce the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against a private business. The Supreme Court held that it did.

Get Out the Vote

What if you went to vote, but were told you the voting actually took place yesterday, but you could see people voting? Then when you finally get there on the ''right'' day, you were told you had to recited the entire Constitution to be eligible to vote.

Facts of the Case

To address concerns with voting discrimination, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed certain voting eligibility requirements such as literacy tests. The act also required preclearance, which meant that certain states and voting districts had to submit any proposed voting laws to the U.S.

Historical Background

The 15th Amendment gave everyone the right to vote regardless of ''race, color, or previous condition of servitude.'' Ninety years later, voter registration among black eligible voters in seven southern states was under 30 percent, while among white eligible voters it was close to 75 percent.

Issue and Decision

The Supreme Court looked at whether the Voting Rights Act violated the U.S. Constitution by encroaching upon state's sovereignty. The Court held that it did not.

What was the significance of the case of South Carolina v. Katzenbach?

Katzenbach was a watershed moment for the Civil Rights Movement, allowing 800,000 African-Americans to register to vote between 1964 and 1967. A more conservative Court in 2013 undermined the power of Katzenbach by striking down the Voting Rights Act because it was based on old data.

Which amendment gives the federal government the power to veto state laws?

Most of the provisions at issue are a proper exercise of authority under the Fifteenth Amendment. However, requiring federal approval of State voting law changes, which essentially gives the federal government veto power of State law, violates the “Republican Form of Government” clause of the Constitution.

Which states have refused to honor the 15th amendment?

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed after days of legislative hearings revealing that a number of southern States, including South Carolina, have flagrantly refused to honor the Fifteenth Amendment. In fact, South Carolina and other States have systematically employed all types of schemes to keep African-Americans from voting.

Which state has a complaint against the Supreme Court?

The State of South Carolina filed a complaint, invoking the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction under Article III, § 2 of the Constitution and seeking a declaration that certain provisions of the Voting Rights are unconstitutional.

Why did Queen's Counsel have a patent of precedence?

Queen's Counsel was originally considered an office of profit and hence, under the Act of Settlement 1701, incompatible with membership of the House of Commons. QCs were also required to take the Oath of Supremacy, which Daniel O'Connell refused as a Roman Catholic; despite being the most prominent and best paid barrister in Ireland, he was a junior counsel for 30 years until granted a patent of precedence in 1831.

Why were Queen's counsels selected?

Queen's Counsel were traditionally selected from barristers, or in Scotland, advocates, rather than from lawyers in general, because they were counsel appointed to conduct court work on behalf of the Crown. Although the limitations on private instruction were gradually relaxed, QCs continued to be selected from barristers, who had the sole right of audience in the higher courts.

What is the title of QC?

The Bar Council, the body which represents barristers' interests, had agreed (in the Elliott Report) that the royal oath should be dropped and replaced by a more neutral statement. It suggested that, instead of declaring services to Queen Elizabeth, barristers should "sincerely promise and declare that I will well and truly serve all whom I may lawfully be called to serve in the office of one of Her Majesty's Counsel , learned in the law according to the best of my skill and understanding".

How many lawyers are Queen's Counsel 2020?

In 2020, the province designated twenty-six lawyers as Queen's Counsel, from a group of 136 nominees.

How many Queen's counsels were there in 1882?

In 1882, the number of Queen's Counsel was 187. The list of Queen's Counsel in the Law List of 1897 gave the names of 238, of whom hardly one third appeared to be in actual practice. In 1959, the number of practising Queen's Counsel was 181.

Where did the Queen's Counsel originate?

The position originated in England. Some Commonwealth countries have either abolished the position, or renamed it so as to remove monarchical connotations, for example, ' Senior Counsel ' or 'Senior Advocate'. Queen's Counsel is an office, conferred by the Crown, that is recognised by courts.

When did Victoria restore the Queen's Counsel?

In 2014, Victoria also restored the rank of Queen's Counsel, by way of making new appointments first as Senior Counsel, but then giving the option to seek appointment as Queen's Counsel by letters patent.

Overview

Drafting

In February 1964, Walt Whitman Rostow, the director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff pointed out a major constitutional problem with the plans to commit American forces to Vietnam, noting under the American constitution only Congress had the power to declare war. Johnson had made it clear that he was opposed to Khánh's plans to have South Vietnam invade North Vietnam out of the fear of causing a war with China, and he had even less enthusiasm for …

Towards the Incident

Throughout 1963, the Kennedy administration was concerned that the South Vietnamese regime of Ngo Dinh Diem was losing the war to the Viet Cong. Such concerns were intensified after Diem was overthrown and killed in a CIA-sponsored coup on 02 November 1963. On 19 December 1963, the Defense Secretary Robert McNamara visited Saigon and reported to President Lyndon B. Johnson that the situation was "very disturbing" as "current trends, unless reversed in the next tw…

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident

Soviet-North Vietnamese relations had badly strained in the early 1960s as North Vietnam moved closer to China, the more militant and aggressive of the two warring Communist giants. When Mao Zedong denounced Nikita Khrushchev for his "cowardice" for choosing a diplomatic compromise to settle the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 instead of a nuclear war against the United States as M…

Congress votes

Early on the morning of 04 August 1964, Johnson told several congressmen at a meeting that North Vietnam had just attacked an American patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin in international waters and promised retaliation. At the same time, Johnson also stated that he wanted Congress to vote for a resolution of support. After the meeting, Johnson told one of his aides, Kenny O'Donnell, that he felt he was "being tested" by North Vietnam with both agreeing that how the president handle…

As a policy instrument

The passage of the resolution alarmed several American allies who preferred that the United States not fight in Vietnam such as Canada. J. Blair Seaborn, the Canadian diplomat who served as Canada's representative to the International Control Commission engaged in secret "shuttle diplomacy" carrying messages back and forth from Hanoi to Washington in an attempt to stop the escalation of the war. On 13 August 1964, Seaborn arrived in Hanoi to meet the North Vietname…

Repeal

By 1967, the rationale for what had become a costly U.S. involvement In the Vietnam War was receiving close scrutiny. With opposition to the war mounting, a movement to repeal the resolution—which war critics decried as having given the Johnson administration a "blank check"—began to gather steam.
An investigation by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee revealed that Maddox had been on an electronic …

External links

• Original Document: Tonkin Gulf Resolution
• Ourdocuments.gov
• Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. "Lyndon B. Johnson: "Special Message to the Congress on U.S. Policy in Southeast Asia," August 5, 1964". The American Presidency Project. University of California - Santa Barbara.