Federalist No. 55
Federalist No. 55 is an essay by James Madison, the fifty-fifth of The Federalist Papers. It was published on February 13, 1788 under the pseudonym Publius, the name under which all The Federalist Papers were published. It is titled "The Total Number of House of Representatives". It is the first of four papers defending the number of members in the House of Representatives against the critics who believe the number of members to be inadequate. The critics presume that there aren't enough representatives to defend the country against the small group of legislators who are violating the rights of the people. In this paper, Madison examines the size of the United States House of Representatives.
The Federalist Papers
Federal judges, when interpreting the Constitution, frequently use "The Federalist Papers" as a contemporary account of the intentions of the framers and ratifiers. They have been applied on issues ranging from the power of the federal government in foreign affairs (in "Hines v. Davidowitz") to the validity of ex post facto laws (in the 1798 decision "Calder v. Bull", apparently the first decision to mention "The Federalist"). , "The Federalist" had been quoted 291 times in Supreme Court decisions.