Coleman v. Miller

Summary

The Court affirmed the Kansas judgment denying mandamus, holding that the twenty senators who voted against ratification had a sufficient direct interest to invoke Supreme Court review by certiorari. The Court declined to decide whether the Lieutenant Governor's tie-breaking vote presented a justiciable question, but held that the effect of Kansas's prior rejection and the thirteen-year lapse before ratification were political questions committed to Congress, not the courts. Justice Black's concurrence would have treated the entire amendment process as exclusively controlled by Congress, while Justice Butler's dissent would have held that the amendment had not been ratified within a reasonable time.