Robert L. Schulz, et al. v. United States Congress

“Government needs to have guidelines of how much power it has, and so constitutions play that role. When you’re in doubt of your institutions, you want things down in black and white so that you can be sure that power does not encroach on liberty.” Gordon S. Wood, historian and author of Power and Liberty: Con­ stitutionalism in the American Revolution. The questions presented in this case are:

1. Whether the D.C. Court of Appeals has sanc­ tioned a “lack of jurisdiction” decision by the District Court that has so far departed from the Constitution and the accepted and usual course of judicial proceed­ ings as to call for an exercise of this court’s supervisory power.

2. Whether the D.C. Court of Appeals has de­ cided an important question of federal law that has not been, but should be, settled by this court - that is, whether congress can displace the power committed by the U.S. Constitution to the State Legislatures to de­ termine how votes of Presidential Electors are to be obtained.

3. Whether the D.C. Court of Appeals has de­ cided yet another important question of federal law that has not been, but should be settled by this court - that is, whether government officials are obligated to respond to a proper First Amendment Petition by a pri­ vate citizen for redress of their violation of a mandate set forth in the U.S. Constitution.