UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

The validity of a statute is drawn in question when the power to enact it is fairly open to denial, and is denied, but not otherwise.

The "validity of a statute of the United States," as the term is used in the Act of March 3, 1855, c. 355, § 2, 23 Stat. 443, "regulating appeals from the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia" to this Court, refers only to the power of Congress to enact the particular statute drawn in question, and not to a judicial construction of it which does not question that power.