NEWS OF THE WEEK.
E Supreme Court of the United States, which alone is em- powered to pass judgment on constitutional questions, has . given a decision which may prove momentous. The opponents of expansion objected to some fiscal regulations in Puerto Rico as unconstitutional, the idea being that if Puerto Rico had become part of the Union its inhabitants could only be taxed like every other part. The Court, however, decided by five to four that while the regulations were illegal because Congress had not passed them, Congress could legislate at its discretion for new possessions of the United States. The Consti- tution did not apply to them until they had asked for and been granted full admission. The effect of this decision is that lands conquered by the States remain, till Congress otherwise wills, mere dependencies, within which Congress is as absolute as the British Parliament. Their people are not electors, and the Government of the Union remains after annexation, say, of the Philippines or Hawaii precisely what it was before. This decision brushes out of the path the most serious obstacles to expansion, and makes of Congress, as regards new acquisi- tions, a sovereign Parliament, which may grant municipal liberties, but may also resume them. We have discussed the effects of this new departure elsewhere.
