The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-07-19
COORDINATE? OR SUBORDINATE?
Prepared for the " Male Wreath" by
Rev. C. NJ. Hyde.l

Prepared for the Male Wreath" by
Rev. C. NJ. Hyde.I
Have the different departments of
the government, executive, legisla-
tive, judicial, coordinate authority?
or is any one department sub ordin-
ate to another! This topic has been
brought into special prominence re-
Gently in connection with trial just
terminated in the Supreme Court.
The independence of the different
departments of the Governments
unity in diversity, a sort of political
trinity-has puzzled many observers
and critics. A member of Parlia-
ment, Hon. James Bryce, has just
published treatise on "The Amer
lean Commonwealth, which has
been Immediately accorded the first
rank as an authority in the matter OF
which it treats.
A recent review of this book in the
New York Evening Post brings out
some facts in regard to this question
of subordination or coordination, as
Mr.. Bryce has presented them. A
brief abstract of some of the state
ments in that article supplemented
by the quotations, will be helpful in
clearing up the controverted matters
in the governmental arrangements.
There is a tendency to unduly
exalt the Office of the Supreme Court
IN declaring some particular law to
be unconstitutional. This does not
repeal the law. Such an interior
ence is an illustration of the working
of that system of checks and bal
ances, by which the centrifugal ele-
ment of Individual progress and the
centripetal element of social con-
servatism, keep in balanced harmony
the working Of governmental forces.
The judgment of the Court is strictly
limited to the case under considera-
ton. There is nothing but that
ultima ratio populi, the sober good
sense of the community, to prevent
individuals from testing a second
time the authority of the law. There
is nothing to prevent the lower Court
from deciding another similar case
in the same way without regard to
the decision of the Supreme Court.
There is nothing to prevent the
Supreme Court on further light or
better consideration from overruling
its former decision. The individuals
interested must decide for themselves
the futility or propriety of their pro-
cedure in accepting or disregarding
the former action of the Court
When B. F. Wade was Judge in one
Of the lower Courts of Ohio, he gave
his decision in a certain case. 1t
was taken to the Supreme Court, and
there reversed. Coming before him
again, he gave judgment as before
He was told that the Supreme Court
had reversed his former Judgment
$50 have heard" was his quiet re-
ply, Il will give them a chance to
set themselves right" The case was
again taken to the Supreme Court
Instead of attacking him for con-
tempt, the Court reversed it's former
decision. On reconsideration, Wade's
was found to be the better ruling.
In only one case out of the fifty one
decisions on Constitutional law.
given by Chief Justice Marshall, was
he in the minority, and in this in
instance professional opinion now
approves Marshall's view, rather than
that given by the majority of the
Court.
American lawyers do not feel that
this contingency, that judicial deci-
sions should be overruled, is such a
very harmful thing. We fully re-
cognlze the historic truth, that deci-
sions have changed, are changing
and ought to continue to change.
We only ask that the change shall be
judicious as we'll as judicial, as the
logic of events draws new conclu-
sions from changing human ex-
periences. So too, a legislature may
differ in opinion from the Court, and
lean upon the statute books, laws
which the Courts do not enforce.
waiting for the results of further
discussion, or simply leaving the law
to lapse into "innocuous desuetude."
AS to the relations of the Judiciary
to the Executive we are to remem-
Der, "Q) the Executive like the
legislature) is its own Judge of con-
stitutional power and duty: (2) the
judiciary, as such, is absolutely de-
pendent on the Executive for the
execution of its own Judgments" If
the Judiciary could, by precept,
determine for the Executive or the
Legislature the limits of their duty.
the Courts would be the supreme
power in the land, and the other de-
partments would be subordinate, not
coordinate. In ordinary cases the
routine OF executive action by sheriff
or marshal is so much a matter of
course, that people forget it is not
the Court that is acting. When
President Jackson said in the
Cherokee case, ''let John Marshall
enforce the Judgment himself" the
speech was rough, but the utterance
was Constitutional. His was NO
mere ministerial duty at the behest
OF the Supreme Court to coerce the
people of Georgia with the United
States Army. His was coordinate
responsibility and at his discretion
tho rni1itorx rr,o,,o -. ia