Our Living Constitution
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all members appointed to the Court have, by custom, been lawyers. Likewise, political parties were not anticipated by the Framers and no provision was made for them in the Constitution. Since the earliest days of the
American republic, however, political parties have played a fundamental
role in our political system, so fundamental, in fact, that it might be said
they are an integral part of our constitutional system because it is through
our party system that political power is organized, exercised, and transferred from one election to the next. The Constitution has nevertheless accommodated political parties without amendment. The same can be said
of the President’s cabinet, which is almost entirely the result of custom.
Similarly, the authors of the First Amendment did not foresee motion
pictures, radio, or television. They knew only direct verbal communication and the printed word. The extension of the right of freedom of
speech and press to a radio news broadcast has not altered the meaning
of these freedoms, however, or required a revision of the First Amendment. It has merely changed the scope of the Amendment. The principle
of free speech remains the same.
Legislation passed by Congress may also be of such a basic nature as
to supplement the Constitution and give added meaning to its provisions. We have already noted the significance of the Judiciary Act of 1789,
which has become virtually a permanent fixture of the American political
system. The Constitution authorizes Congress to determine who shall be
President in the event that both the President and the Vice President
should be removed from office or be unable to serve because of death,
incapacity, or resignation. By the Presidential Succession Act of 1947
Congress has provided that first the Speaker of the House, then the President Pro Tem of the Senate, and then cabinet heads should become President, in that order, if such a contingency should arise. Also, the Constitution nowhere prescribes the precise manner by which inferior officers
are to be selected. Article II, Section 2 merely states that their appointment may be vested in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the
heads of departments. In 1883, however, Congress passed the Pendleton
Act, which provided for the establishment of a Civil Service Commission
and the recruitment and hiring of thousands of Federal employees on the
basis of ratings derived from competitive examinations. That civil service