Abstract: In the United States, where a written constitution and bill of rights have the force of law, we take for granted that judges of law will sometimes rule upon the legal validity of legislative and executive acts of government. The U. S. Constitution, as law, certainly outranks all other domestic legal material; that is the point of having the kind of constitution we have. It easily follows that when one party to a litigated dispute appeals to a governmental act in support of some legal claim or defense, the other party can always logically respond (and, as it happens, can