This is a list of cases reported in volume 297 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1936. Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of volume 297 U.S. The Supreme Court is established by Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of the United States, which says: "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court . . .". The size of the Court is not specified; the Constitution leaves it to Congress to set the number of justices. Under the Judiciary Act of 1789 Congress originally fixed the number of justices at six (one chief justice and five associate justices). Since 1789 Congress has varied the size of the Court from six to seven, nine, ten, and back to nine justices (always including one chief justice). When the cases in volume 297 were decided the Court comprised the following nine members: Notable Cases in 297 U.S. United States v. Butler In United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1 (1936), the Supreme Court held that the U.S. Congress has not only the power to lay taxes to the level necessary to carry out its other powers enumerated in Article I of the U.S. Constitution but also a broad authority to tax and spend for the "general welfare" of the United States. The decision itself concerned whether the processing taxes instituted by the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act were constitutional. Brown v. Mississippi In Brown v. Mississippi, 297 U.S. 278 (1936), the Supreme Court ruled that a defendant's involuntary confession that is extracted by the use of force on the part of law enforcement cannot be entered as evidence and violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In a unanimous decision, the Court reversed the convictions of the African-American defendants. The Court held that a defendant's confession extracted by police torture cannot be entered as evidence, and violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The prosecutor at the trial level, John Stennis, was not hurt politically by his prosecutions based on torture-extracted confessions; to the contrary, the voters of Mississippi elected him to office thirteen times, and he never lost an election. Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 297 U.S. 288 (1936), is a Supreme Court case that provided the first elaboration of the doctrine of "Constitutional avoidance". Federal court