Powell v. McCormack (1969)

Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a Harlem pastor first elected to Congress in 1944, was one of the most powerful Black politicians in the country and chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. In the 1960s he faced charges that he misused committee funds for personal travel and paid his wife for work she did not perform, and he was in legal trouble in New York over a defamation judgment. After his reelection in 1966, the House voted 307 to 116 on March 1, 1967, to exclude him from his seat rather than seat and then expel him.

Powell sued Speaker John McCormack and other House officials. On June 16, 1969, the Supreme Court ruled 7 to 1, in Chief Justice Earl Warren's final major opinion, that the House had acted unconstitutionally. Article I lets each house judge the qualifications of its members, but the Court held that this power is limited to the qualifications the Constitution itself lists, age, citizenship, and residence, and that the House may not add others. The Court also held the dispute was not a political question, applying the factors from Baker v. Carr.

The ruling distinguished exclusion, which requires only a majority but is limited to the constitutional qualifications, from expulsion, which requires a two-thirds vote and may be based on misconduct. Powell had already been reelected and seated in January 1969, though the House fined him and stripped his seniority. In U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton in 1995, the Court extended Powell's reasoning to hold that states also cannot add qualifications, striking down state-imposed congressional term limits. Supporters say Powell protects voters' choices, while others argue each house should have more control over its membership.