court cases to achieve. When Giles v. Harris was brought to the Supreme Court, some members of the Court (and the Executive Branch) did not conceive of exercising such federal powers years after Reconstruction had ended. However, the legislative branch had exercised such power in challenges until the time of Giles v. Harris. In the 19th century, the House Elections Committee repeatedly refused to seat members reported elected by their states when it found that the voting or registration process had been compromised. Since the excluded members were inevitably Democrats, partisan politics could play a role in these decisions; certainly such members were unseated only when Republicans held the majority in the House. After the Giles v. Harris ruling, the legislative branch stopped unseating members because of such concerns. The issue of disenfranchisement of blacks was repeatedly brought up by concerned congressmen. For instance, in the 1920s, a Republican representative proposed readjusting apportionment to decrease southern seats in relation to the populations they had disfranchised. By that time, the Southern Democrats had so much power that they could defeat any such proposals. See also Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123 (1908) Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U.S. 334 (1960) Guinn v. United States, 238 U.S. 347 (1915) References Further reading Brenner, Samuel (2009), "'Airbrushed out of the Constitutional Canon': The Evolving Understanding of Giles v. Harris, 1903–1925", Michigan Law Review, 107 (March 2009), 853–79, . Gerard N. Magliocca (2011), The Tragedy of William Jennings Bryan: Constitutional Law and the Politics of Backlash, New Haven, CT: Yale. External links 1903 in United States case law African-American history of Alabama History of voting rights in the United States Political repression in the United States United States Supreme Court cases United States Fifteenth Amendment case law United States Eleventh Amendment case law United States elections case law Legal history of Alabama History of Montgomery, Alabama Alabama elections United States Supreme Court cases of the Fuller Court Minority rights case law