The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-06-21
ST. PAUL, WEDNESDAY,,

II. PAUL, MIMI, WE'D
WATCH THE COURTS
The Usurpation of Legislative
Power by the Courts
A Danger that Menaces the Liber.
ties of the People.
'The gates and bars which still,
survive in some of the London
thOrOughfares as an unaSSerted
claim of certain landhOlders to right
in the streets are to be abolished, the
house of lords finally sanctioning a
bill promoted by the county council
These gates number fifty-nine."
This little extract illustrates the
difference between the United
States and England. Here are men
having an immemorial right to GER
tain streets, but "the omnipotent
power of an act of Parliament
sweeps them all aside. In this coun-
try, if congress had the nerve to pass
such an act, the very dogs in the
streets would bark demonstrations
ar' at the lawmakers; the newspa-
pers would throw up their hands in
holy horror; and the courts, one after
another, from lowest to highest,
would declare that the chaps who
were obstructing the highways were
doing so under an implied contract
with the people, and that the act in
question violated "the obligation OF
this contract" and was therefore
null and void; and the plaintiffs
would continue to obstruct the
streets, to the great detriment of the
public, "as long as the grass grows
and water runs"
And we ask our readers to examine
the constitution of the United States
and put their fingers on the provis-
ion of that instrument which gives a
bench of judges the power to over
ride the deliberate will OF
the whole people expressed
through congress. There is moth
ing of the kind. In fact the
constitution, Art. III, Sec. 2, pro-
vides that in all cases. where the
United States is party. the Su-
preme court shall not have original
but appellate jurisdiction, and even
then with such exceptions and un-
der such regulation as Congress may
make.' So that congress has the
power, at any time, to provide that
no suit shall be brought against the
United States, and that the Supreme
court shall make no decision in
validating any act of congress. In
fact the XIth amendment proposed
in the third congress, and adopted,
declares that no state of the United
States shall be sued by any citizen or
by any other state. It never was con-
templated, for one moment, by the
founders of our government, that the
ultimate power of all legislation,
should rest in the judicial depart
ment; and that no act of congress
should become effective until ap-
proved by lot of lawyers, selected
for the bench mainly by the corpora
tiOns.
And what is true of the constitu.
tion of the United States is equally
true of our state constitution. Art.
III, Sec. 1, of the same provides:
'The powers of government shall
be divided into three distinct depart
ments, legislative, executive and
judicial; and no person or persons be.
these departments, shall exercise
any of the powers properly belonging
so either Of the others, except in the
Instances expressly provided in this
constitution"
The power to nullify and set aside
a law is equal to the power to make
laws; since it restores the pre-exist
ing legislative conditions which il
was sought to correct. Every statute
of our state stands to-day simply by
the permission of the courts; fol
there is not one that legal casuistry
could not find an excuse to abrogate
Suppose the legislature thought
that the courts were not doing theil
duty, in matters legitimately before
them, and sent for the witnesses and
proceeded to hear them and make
DEGREES and record Judgments
would it not be a clear case of usur.
patton? Is it any less usurpation fol
the courts to review the action of the
legislature, and set it aside on wire.
drawn technicalities spun from Their
own ingenious brains? And, where
is the warrant for anything of the
kind in the text of the constitution:
Will some one point it out?
But it will be said-the ultimate
power to decide what is right and
what is wrong must rest somewhere
Truo R11t uhoro IN n cuch a torrihlo