Massachusetts v. Mellon, Frothingham v. Mellon

262 U.S. 447 (1923)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

The Act provides for annual appropriations to be apportioned among such of the several states as shall accept and comply with its provisions, for the purpose of cooperating to reduce maternal and infant mortality and protect the health of mothers and infants. It creates a bureau to administer the act in co-operation with state agencies. Whenever that bureau shall determine that funds have not been properly expended in respect of any state, payments may be withheld. It is asserted that these appropriations are for purposes not national, but local to the states, and constitutes an effective means of inducing the states to yield a portion of their sovereign rights. It is further alleged that the act is a usurpation of power not granted to Congress by the Constitution-an attempted exercise of the power of local self-government reserved to the states by the Tenth Amendment; and that the defendants are proceeding to carry the act into operation. In the Massachusetts Case, it is alleged that the plaintiff's rights and powers as a sovereign state and the rights of its citizens have been invaded and usurped by these expenditures and acts even though Massachusetts did not adopt the plan. In the Frothingham, Case plaintiff alleges that the effect of the statute will be to take her property, under the guise of taxation, without due process of law.