of the 67th Congress, and was followed the next year by a similar
volume annotating the cases through the October 1923 Term of the Supreme
Court. (Senate Document 154, 68th Congress.) Both of these volumes went
somewhat beyond the mere enumeration of cases, carrying under the
particular provisions of the Constitution a brief statement of the point
involved in the principal cases cited.

Thirteen years of Constitutional developments led Congress in 1936 to
authorize a revision of the 1924 volume, and under authority of Senate
Concurrent Resolution 35 introduced by Senator Ashurst, Chairman of the
Judiciary Committee, such a revision was prepared in the Legislative
Reference Service and issued as Senate Document 232, 74th Congress.

This volume was, like its predecessors, dedicated to the need felt by
Members for a convenient ready-reference manual. However, so extensive
and important had been the judicial interpretation of the Constitution
in the interim that a very much larger volume was the result.

After another decade, in the course of which many of the earlier
interpretations were reviewed and modified, the Senate again moved for a
revision of the Annotations. Senate Joint Resolution 69 introduced by
the then Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Alexander Wiley,
again called upon the Library of Congress to undertake the work. The
confidence thus implied was most thoroughly appreciated. To meet his
responsibilities, the Librarian called upon Dr. Edward S. Corwin to head
the project. The collaborating staff, supplied by the Legislative
Reference Service, included Dr. Norman J. Small as assistant editor,
Miss Mary Louise Ramsey, and Robert J. Harris.

This time, more than ever, the compilers faced a difficult task in
balancing the prime requirement of a thorough and adequate annotation
against the very practical desire to keep the results within convenient
compass.

Work on the project was delayed until funds were made available. In
consequence the annotations have been extended to a somewhat later date,
covering decisions of the Supreme Court through June 30, 1952.

Ernest S. Griffith,
_Director, Legislative Reference Service._

EDITOR'S FOREWORD

The purpose of this volume is twofold; first, to set forth so far as
feasible the currently operative meaning of all provisions of the
Constitution of the United States; second, to trace in the case of the
most important provisions the course of deci