appeals should be allowed to stand, he concluded. Lewis McQuown further argued on behalf of Beckham that, even if Taylor's claim to the governorship were legitimate, the investigation and decision by the General Assembly's contest committee represented sufficient due process. He acknowledged that the Goebel Election Law's provision that the legislature be the arbiter of any contested gubernatorial election differed little if at all from provisions in as many as twenty other states. If the Goebel Election Law was constitutional, as it had before been declared, then the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction regarding how it had been administered. When Maxwell concluded his argument, ex-Governor Bradley spoke on Taylor's behalf. After reiterating Taylor's legal claim to the office of governor, he answered the question of jurisdiction by citing Thayer v. Boyd, a similar case in which the court had assumed jurisdiction. He further quoted authorities who opined that an elected office was property, using this to contend that Taylor's rights under the Fourteenth Amendment had been violated, thus giving the court jurisdiction. Also, Bradley asserted, the election of some members of the Assembly's contest committee would hinge on the decision of that very committee. At least one member of the committee was known to have wagered on the election's outcome. These facts should have nullified the decision of the committee and the Assembly on the grounds that it had left some members as judges of their own cases. Finally, Bradley cited irregularities in the proceedings of the contest committee, including insufficient time given for the review of testimony provided in written form by Taylor and Marshall's legal representation. Following Bradley's argument, the court recessed until May 14, 1900. Opinion of the Court Chief Justice Melville Fuller delivered the opinion of the court on May 21, 1900. This opinion held that there were no federal issues in question in the case, and that the court lacked jurisdiction. The opinion affirmed the state court of appeals' assertion that an elective office was not property. Justices Gray, White, Shiras, and Peckham concurred with the majority opinion. In his 1910 book, The Constitutional Law of the United States, Westel W. Willoughby noted that the court's ruling that an elective office was not property was at odds with previous decisions in which it had assumed jurisdiction in cases between two contestants for an office to determine if due process was granted. By assuming jurisdiction in