“ We see no justification for holding that Congress in accomplishing an end admittedly within its power is restricted to those means which are most cumbersome and burdensome to a defendant. Since it may provide the District citizen with a federal forum in which to sue the citizens of one of the states, it is hard to imagine a fairer or less prejudiced one than the regular federal courts sitting in the defendant's own state. ”

“ Conversely, if we assume that today's ruling tacitly validates suits brought by state citizens against citizens of the District of Columbia, it would seem the plaintiff citizen of a state is as deserving of a federal forum when suing a District defendant as when suing a defendant in a neighbor state.
Marshall's sole premise of decision in the Hepburn case has failed, under the stress of time and later decision, as a test of constitutional construction. Key words like 'state,' 'citizen,' and 'person' do not always and invariably mean the same thing. ”

“ By positing the capacity of a corporation to sue or be sued under the diversity clause on the citizenship of its shareholders, the Deveaux decision opened the way for corporations ultimately to be brought within the diversity jurisdiction, but only by the long and tortuous evolution of the law through the stages first of rebuttable and finally of conclusive presumption (now most often contrary to the fact) that all the shareholders are citizens of the state of incorporation. ”

“ However, nothing but naked precedent, the great age of the Hepburn ruling, and the prestige of Marshall's name, supports such a result. It is doubtful whether anyone could be found who now would write into the Constitution such an unjust and discriminatory exclusion of District citizens from the federal courts. All of the reasons of justice, convenience, and practicality which have been set forth for allowing District citizens a furtive access to federal courts, point to the conclusion that they should enter freely and fully as other citizens and even aliens do. ”

“ It has never heretofore been doubted that the constitutional grant of power is broader than the general federal-question jurisdiction which Congress has from time to time thought to confer on district courts by statute. ”

“ As Hamilton said in The Federalist, No. 81: 'The contracts between a Nation and an individual are only binding on the conscience of the sovereign and have no pretensions to compulsive force. They confer no right of action independent of the sovereign will.' When the sovereign consents to be sued, therefore, considerably more is involved than opening the courts to plaintiffs already possessed of causes of action. ”

“ Unless we are to deny the jurisdiction in such cases which has consistently been upheld, we must rely on the Art. I powers of the Congress. We have been cited to no holding that such jurisdiction cannot spring from that Article. Under Art. I the Congress has given the district courts not only jurisdiction over cases arising under the bankruptcy law but also judicial power over nondiversity cases which do not arise under that or any other federal law. And this Court has upheld the latter grant. ”

“ It is not enough to refer to the breadth of congressional power over the District; that such power is national in character rather than merely local. The power of Congress over the territories is equally broad, yet territorial courts cannot be invested with Art. III power under the O'Donoghue case. And some of the very statements now relied upon as indicating the scope of Congress' power over the District [66] were quoted in the O'Donoghue case, but the rationale of that case was expressly limited to courts of the District, as noted above. ”

“ For the diversity jurisdiction here thus sustained is identical in all respects with the diversity jurisdiction thought to be closed to District citizens by Article III: It is justice administered in the same courtroom and under the supervision of the same judge; it is, presumptively, justice fashioned by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A., and, now, under the aegis of Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins. [32] The jurisdiction today thus upheld is not simply an expurgated version of a banned original; it is the real thing. ”

“ In no matter should we pay more deference to the opinions of Congress than in its choice of instrumentalities to perform a function that is within its power. [25] To put federally administered justice within the reach of District citizens, in claims against citizens of another state, is an object which Congress has a right to accomplish. ”

“ Possession by the trustee not being shown, and there being no diversity, jurisdiction in the district court could flow only from the statute. Chief Justice Hughes noted that the distinction between proceedings in bankruptcy and suits at law and in equity was recognized by the terms of the statute itself, but held that 'Congress (Const. Art. 1, § 8) , by virtue of its constitutional authority over bankruptcies, could confer or withhold jurisdiction to entertain such suits and could prescribe the conditions upon which the federal courts should have jurisdiction. ”

“ In mere mechanics of government and administration we should, so far as the language of the great Charter fairly will permit, give Congress freedom to adapt its machinery to the needs of changing times. ”

“ The Constitution must have given to the court the capacity to take it, and an act of Congress must have supplied it. Their concurrence is necessary to vest it. It is the duty of Congress to act for that purpose up to the limits of the granted power. They may fall short of it, but cannot exceed it.' (Emphasis added.)
And in a series of three cases decided between 1800 and 1809, the Court refused to give literal effect to § 11 of the Judiciary Act of 1789, which had extended the jurisdiction of Circuit Courts to suits 'where an alien is a party,' because of the limitations imposed by Art. ”

“ Still less does it make the latter legislative courts, which is the effect of the statute now being considered. It is one thing to say that legislative courts may exercise jurisdiction over some of the same matters that are within Art. III judicial power. It is quite another thing to hold that constitutional courts may take cognizance of causes which are not within the scope of that power. ”

“ But we think the sound construction of the constitution must allow to the national legislature that discretion, with respect to the means by which the powers it confers are to be carried into execution, which will enable that body to perform the high duties assigned to it, in the manner most beneficial to the people. ”

“ For, by present hypothesis, federal court disposition of diversity suits must be in accord with local law in all matters of substance. But symbolically the matter is of very considerable importance. Reasonable men may differ perhaps over whether or, more appropriately, to what extent citizens of the District should have political status and equality with their fellow citizens. ”

“ Put to one side were other provisions advanced in argument as showing 'that the term state is sometimes used in its more enlarged sense' on the ground that 'they do not prove what was to be shown by them.' Ibid. But cf. 2 Cranch 445, 446-448, 450, 2 L.Ed. 332.
Whether or not this answer was adequate at the time, [39] our Constitution today would be very different from what it is if such a narrow and literal construction of each of its terms had been transmuted into an inflexible rule of constitutional interpretation. ”

“ Moreover, the Justices who dissented from the O'Donoghue rationale of dual jurisdiction expressed no disagreement with the Williams opinion. In these circumstances, certainly no more strength can be drawn from the language of a case upholding salary reductions for one group of judges than from the holding in a case striking down salary reductions for another group of judges. ”

“ Higginson, 1800, 4 Dall. 12, 14, 1 L.Ed. 720, it was decided that 'as the legislative power of conferring jurisdiction on the federal Courts is, in this respect, confined to suits between citizens and foreigners, we must so expound the terms of the law, as to meet the case, 'where, indeed, an alien is one party,' but a citizen is the other.' This construction of the statute was adhered to in Montalet v. Murray, 1807, 4 Cranch 46, 2 L.Ed. ”

“ The motion was carried and the clause establishing inferior federal tribunals excised from the draft Constitution. Madison, however, immediately moved 'that the National Legislature be empowered to institute inferior fe eral tribunals,' urging that some provision for such courts was a necessity in a federal system. Madison's notes then record the reaction of Pierce Butler of South Carolina to this proposal: 'The people will not bear such innovations. The States will revolt at such encroachments. Supposing such an establishment to be useful, we must not venture on it. ”

“ Each is for a national purpose, and the one may be used in aid of the other.' * * *' And, just prior to enactment of the statute now challenged on this ground, the Court of Appeals for the District itself, sitting en banc, and relying on the foregoing authorities, had said that Congress 'possesses full and unlimited jurisdiction to provide for the general welfare' of District citizens 'by any and every act of legislation which it may deem conducive to that end. ”

“ To circumvent the limits of Article III, it is said, after finding a contrary and overriding intent in Article I, that Article III dis rict courts in the several states can also be vested with jurisdiction springing from Article I. The only express holding which conceivably could lend comfort to this doctrine of dual jurisdiction in this Court's conclusion in O'Donoghue v. ”

“ In those Journals it will appear, that a proposition was made, 'that no Treaty shall be binding on the United States which was not ratified by a law,' and that the proposition was explicitly rejected.' Annals of Congress, Fourth Congress, 1st Sess., p. 761. See also the comment of Madison at a later date. 3 Writings of James Madison, 515.↑ 1 Farrand 124. See the argument of Luther Martin before the Maryland House of Representatives opposing ratification of the Constitution in 3 Farrand, 156. See also 2 Elliot, Debates 408; 3 id. ”

“ They were open to reconsideration, in the light of new experience and greater knowledge and wisdom.' 317 U.S. XLII, XLVII.↑ The Hepburn case was not the only one in those earlier years where the master touch was lacking. Cf. Bank of the United States v. Deveaux, 5 Cranch 61, 3 L.Ed. 38; Hope Insurance Co. v. Boardman, 5 Cranch 57, 3 L.Ed. 36; Maryland Insurance Co. v. Woods, 6 Cranch 29, 3 L.Ed. 143; Maryland Ins. Co. v. Wood, 7 Cranch 402, 3 L.Ed. 385; McGovney, A Supreme Court Fiction, 56 Harv.L.Rev. ”

“ Griffiths, 318 U.S. 371, 401, n. 52, 63 S.Ct. 636, 652, 87 L.Ed. 843; compare Mr. Justice Brandeis' compilations in Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co., supra, 285 U.S. at page 406, n. 1, 52 S.Ct. at page 447, 76 L.Ed. 815, and in his dissenting opinion in State of Washington v. W. C. Dawson & Co., 264 U.S. 219, 238, n. 21, 44 S.Ct. 302, 309, 68 L.Ed. 646. Chief Justice Stone, speaking for the Court on the death of Mr. ”