Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-01-23

In conflict with It. This degrxdes the
Constitution from It's supremacy, and
gives an unconstitutional act of Congress
s double chance Of prevailing over it.
Congress might as well make a formal
| declaration that the Constitution is alb.
rOgsted as to give is own acts such o
superiority.
By tbs passage of this bill, Congress
would usOrp the most important fune.
ton Of the Supreme Court, namely
that OF deciding on the constitutionality
of laws. Congress decides by q mere
majority that q law Is constitutional, and
forbids the Supreme Court to decide, by
ats majority, that it Is net. The majority
Of Congress is thereby made superior to
the majority of the Supreme Court in
deciding the very class Of cases especially
committed to the latter. If Congress
has q right to make tWo-thirds Of the
/ court necessary to declare q law uncon-
stitutional, it has an equal right to make
three-fOurths or seveD-eighths necessary
for that purpose, and thus enable Chief
| Justice Chase TO counterbAlance all the
rest Of the judges. There is 20 obstacle
10 fixing the proportion at seven-eighths
which does not equally exist to fixing il
at tw~O-tEirds. II, therefore, Congress
has q right to pass such q bill as is now
proposed, it might equally pass 3 bill
which would make the decision Of Chief
Justice Chase, in bis circuit, incapable OF
being reversed when carried up by
appeal to the Supreme Court. Nay, II
! Congress has q right to pass the proposed
bill, It has sn equal right to prescribe
that no law shall be pronounced uncon-
s%titutional except by u unanimous deci-
sion. A single party tool on the Supreme
bench would suffice to render Congress
OmnipOtent. In vain did the trainers Of
the Constitution attempt TO establish an
independent judiciary, to contine Con-
gress within the limits of the COnstitu-
don, II Congress can make its majority
more potent than the majority Of the
Supreme Court in deciding on the eonsti-
%tunonality Of a law.
Another thing is to be said, and it is
this Congress has no business to know,
and nobody has in any case any business
to know that there is any division among
the judges. They do not vote in public,
and cannot be made to do so. In the
French Courts there never is a dissent
ing opinion. The whole thing of deliv-
eriDg them, and of one or two Judges
informing the parties to the case that
they do not assent to the opinion and
Judgment of the majority, is q wrong,
foolish, vicious practice. The Court has
nothing to dc with the public, 1t deals
only with the rights Of the parties. No
Judge has any right to appeal to the
public from the decision of the Court (;
and it is certainly a very poor business for
him to tell the losing party that he
ouqht not to have lost his ease. The
Court il q unit. 1t has 3 right to make
I'd its own judgments and deliver them ;
and, as a matter of right, no one, not
even Congress, has any right or can have
any, to know how the Judges stood upon
the matter. The opinion of the minority
can not in the nature Of things be the
judgment of the Court.
The HteIigeacer thus concludes; and
we say to it " Amen! GOD GRANT TT"
In q party view, we have no objection
to the passage OF this preposterous bill.
It will give occasion to such a veto as
will make the country ring, and the ears
VI A1b LhCHA1AAlAHA AAD6A~s - 80
be repassed v c q veto, (which is i'm
~probable), the Supreme Court would
treat 1t as null, snd the Republican party
would have disgrseed itself for nothing.
If it be meant merely as q menace, to
influence the action of the judges in the
case about to come before them, 1t will
equally fail, and equally recoil. 1t gives
the Democratic party the advantage OF a
new and strong issue. The independence
of the Judiciary, the great bulwark of all
our rights and liberties, is involved in the
result Of the Presidential election
The Republican party stands on the
edge of a precipiee. In few weeks,
perhaps in a few days, We may see 1t
pushed over and enguifsd. Intelligent
expect, and Congress itself hears,
that the reconstruction acts are ABOUT to
he declared null by the Supreme Court.
From that moment the Republican party
will sink "deeper than ever plummet
sOuudedH