Edward Douglass White, United States v. Conrad Heinszen C…
“ Hence again, if it be conceded that the capacity to prosecute the pending suit to judgment was, in a sense, a vested right, certainly also the power of the United States to ratify was, to say the least, a right of as high a character. To arrogate to themselves the authority to devest the right of the United States to ratify is, then, in reason, the assumption upon which the asserted right of the claimants to recover must rest. ”
Edward Douglass White, United States v. Conrad Heinszen C…
“ That where an agent, without precedent authority, has exercised, in the name of a principal, a power which the principal had the capacity to bestow, the principal may ratify and affirm the unauthorized act, and thus retroactively give it validity when rights of third persons have not intervened, is so elementary as to need but statement. That the power of ratification as to matters within their authority may be exercised by Congress, state governments, or municipal corporations, is also elementary. ”
Edward Douglass White, United States v. Conrad Heinszen C…
“ As the text of the act of Congress is unambiguous, and manifests, as explicitly as can be done, the purpose of Congress to ratify, the case comes to the simple question whether Congress possessed the power to ratify which it assumed to exercise. When the controversy is thus reduced to its ultimate issue we think the error committed by the court below, both in reason and authority, is readily demonstrable. ”
