Well yeah. That’s the way it works. When Congress passes a law, its the law of the land until its declared unconstitutional. Not what the courts have said.
An Unconstitutional Act is not law; it confers no rights: it imposes no duties; affords no protection; it creates no office; it is in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it had never been passed.” (Norton vs. Shelby County 118 US 425 p.442)
And it is unconstitutional from the day it is signed, one cannot be punished for violating such a "law", even if one does so before the law is declared unconstitutional.
Well yeah. That’s the way it works. When Congress passes a law, its the law of the land until its declared unconstitutional.
Not what the courts have said.
An Unconstitutional Act is not law; it confers no rights: it imposes no duties; affords no protection; it creates no office; it is in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it had never been passed.” (Norton vs. Shelby County 118 US 425 p.442)
And it is unconstitutional from the day it is signed, one cannot be punished for violating such a “law”, even if one does so before the law is declared unconstitutional.
Here’s an example:
Schools had been legally racially segregated from 1898 onward by scores of laws passed by states implementing the separate but equal doctrine affirmed in Plessy v Ferguson. When the Supreme Court affirmed Brown v Board of Education in 1954, all those laws were struck down as unconstitutional. That did not mean that racially segregated schools had been illegal and unconstitutional for that period of 54 years, it meant that from 1954 onward, school racial segregation was now illegal and unconstitutional.
Another more recent example. Congress passed and President Clinton signed into law, the Line Item Veto Act of 1996. It was challenged in court and ultimately ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1998. President Clinton used the line item veto 3 times before injunctions halted its usage while its legal status was being adjudicated. Those three times that Clinton used the line item veto were not undone by the 6-3 ruling declaring the Act to be unconstitutional.