James M. Beck - U.S. Representative

U.S. Representative

After resigning as solicitor general, Beck became involved in the legal fight of William S. Vare, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate but was denied a seat because of irregularities in the election. In response, Beck wrote "The Vanishing Rights of States", in which he argued that the U.S. Constitution didn't allow the Senate the ability to exclude a member chosen through an election. The debate that followed the book's publishing raised Beck's public profile and made him a prominent option to fill the House seat vacated by the resignation of James M. Hazlett.

Beck was elected as a Republican to the Seventieth Congress, was reelected to the Seventy-first, Seventy-second, and Seventy-third Congresses and served from November 8, 1927 until his resignation on September 30, 1934.

He was active in the movement to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which he said had no place in the constitution. He also fended off legal questions about his official residence and thus eligibility to represent Philadelphia.