Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1895-06-21
FEDERAL COURTS AND THE
CT TIES


FEDERAL COURTS AND THE
STATES.
Except that Judge Golf was early affect.
ed by that wave of uncertainty and wob-
bling which lately affected large por-
ton of the judiciary OF this country from
the highest Federal court of appeals down
to the humblest county court of Eastern
Virginia, it is hard to imagine any explain
alton for his late election law eaper in
South Carolina. 1t was transparent that
if Golf was law-giyer then self govern
ment in the States was soon to be a thing
of the past. Nevertheless the effect Of his
action, while wholly different from what he
intended, has served an excellent purpose in
bringing forth very different views from a
very different sort Of judges. The u.
S. Circuit Court of Appeals which, sitting
at Richmond, heard South Cardinals APP
peal from Colts action, was composed
politically this way: Chief Justic Fuller
(Dem.), District Judge R. W. Hughes
(Rep.). District Judge Seymour (Rep.).
and yet the court was unanimous is dis
solving COTS injunction. The only opin-
ion that has yet been written in full is that
of Judge Hughes, and in that we find some
propositions laid down that should have
the widest circulation. 1t says:
The division of our government into the
legislative. executive and judicial depart
ments is distinguishing feature of our Amer
lean pollty, and it is essential to its existence
that each of these departments shall be indie
pendent of the other. The division is funda-
mental and organic. 1t would be just as
dangerous to its stability for the judicial de-
partment to override the others as for the
executive or legislative departments to do SO.
Hence, while the right Of the judiciary to
pass upon the constitutionalty OF laws is I'M
doubted, it has that right simply as an Incl
dent to its protection OF private rights. 1t has
not that right as mere means Of settling
abstract questions; and even in the enforce
ment of private rights, it has not the power
to interfere with the discretion vested in the
other departments Oh with the exercise of the
political powers of those departments. 1t
seems to me that it is dangerous encroach-
partments of government if the judiciary be
entrusted to exercise the power of interfering
with the holding of an election in a State.
And this:
do not think that a court has jurisdiction
to interfere by injunction or otherwise with
the enforcement of laws by officers holding
and deriving their powers from these laws;
certainly not to the extent in which it is at
tempted to be done by this bill In arriving
question whether or not the registration laws
of South Carolina violate the Federal Consti-
tuition or laws. prefer to rest my opinion
upon the ground Of the independence of the
different departments of government; upon
the impolicy of interference by the courts in
questions which will result in dragging them
constantly into the arena of party politics;
aud upon the general principle that each de-
partment of the government and each officer
thereof, high OF low, has the right to admin,
lister, according to his best judgment, the
duties imposed upon him by the laws creating
his office.
And this to close with:
can imagine nothing more pernicious than
direct participation by the judiciary, by
judicial action, in the politics of the people.
The bill asked practically that the process OF
registration under the laws of the State
should he suspended in an entire county dur
ing the pleasure of the court, and that all the
citizens of a county not then registered as
voters should be denied the right of suffrage
during that pleasure. 1t seems to me that
the mere statement of this view of the case
shows that the injunction was improvldently
granted.
It is rather surprising that none of these
reflections should have occurred to Judge
Golf. Had he looked back he would have
found that the whole trend Of the decisions
Of the Z. S. Supreme Court since the close
Of the war, has been to the maintenance in
violate of State sovereignty in everything
in which State government is at issue-and
this when Republican judges far more out
numbered Democratic judges on its bench
than they do now.