Georgetown Center for the Constitution

Noting that “[t]hose defenders of the Constitution who did not share Anti-Federalist doubts argued that the inherent legislative responsibility to ‘Judge of the Elections, Returns, and Qualifications of its own Members’ included authority to ensure that elections were conducted fairly.”

Noting that the grant of power to the legislature to “be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members” is an instance of unreviewable discretion vested in a branch and arguing that such grants, when made, are made explicitly.

Noting that “it seems that Congress, not the courts, was given the power to judge whether a person has met the qualifications established by the Constitution.”