Arizona republican., 1911-05-19
Courts and Constitutions.

NoI- bul ours IS q democracy, and We
 the people have the right to rule when we have thought out our problems and have come to a definite decision.
 The proper governmental system for democracy is one under which the public servant is given full power to achieve results, and is then held rig idly responsible for his exercise of that power. 1 wish the judge to be given full power, power of the amplest kind so that he may grapple with every issue that comes before him. I do not wish, for instance, to see the power of the judge in contempt cases so abridged as to render it impossible for judges to do what so many of them did in 1893, when in not q few states the fearless and wise action of the judges, while most of the executive and legislative officers had yielded to panic, was the chief factor in preventing the advent of chaos. I wish to see the judge given all power and treated with all respect; but I also wish to see him held ac- countable to the people. I wish to see the people exercise their power with moderation, and I wish to see the conditions such tlat it shall be neces- sary for them {. think coolly, and make it evident at they have come to a well settled conclusion before they can act against a judge. But they must have the power to act And not only should they exercise this power in the case of any judge who shows moral delinquency on the bench, but they should also exercise it when ever they have been forced to come to the conclusion that any judge, no matter how upright and well inten- tioned, is fundamentally out of sym pathy with a righteous popular move ment, so that his presence on the bench has become a bar to orderly progress for right-Mr. Roosevelt, in The Outlook
 All of which sounds reasonable enough. MT. Roosevelt is here dis cussing, not the alleged merits of the doctrine of the recall, but the neces- sity, from his viewpoint, of forcing the courts to carry out the popular will as expressed in legislation.
 The New York court of appeals re- gently declared unconstitutional the New York law which sought to pro- vide for the compulsory compensa- ton of workmen for injuries received in the line of duty, and this decision is the subject of MT. Roosevelt's arti- cle. MT. Roosevelt is aware, how ever. that so long as we have a con- necessary to lodge somewhere the power and authority to decide whether any given piece of legislation is in harmony with or contrary to constitu- tional provisions and limitations. Under the prevailing system of gov ernment, this power of interpretation is lodged with the courts. It would appear that Mir. Roosevelt advocates withdrawing this power from the courts and lodging it with the people. But only time will determine whether Judges being human, will and do, make mistakes. But only time will determine whether great CT mistakes will be made by the people when they have the power, as here proposed, to override a judicial decision. Presumably the New York court of appeals could not have de- cided otherwise than it did in this case, without violating the New York has always been, in such cases, to amend the constitution instead of de- stroying the power of the courts to uphold the constitution. The difficulty with Mir. Roosevelts remedy is that it is not practicable to limit the ap- plication of the remedy. Granting that the people have suffered a mis- fortune in the nullification of the New York compensation law. and that it would be to the public benefit to em- power the people to set aside, off hand, the decision of the court of last resort, it by no means follows that it is desirable to deprive the courts of the power of final decision in all cases. Yet this is what Mir Roosevelt advo- cates To give the people the power to act in every case would be to empower the majority to hold the courts accountable every time the courts render an unpopular decision. The safer policy, it would seem, would be to make it easy to amend consti- tutions, and leave the courts with their present undisputed authority reserving to the people, at the same time. the power to get rid of cor rupt judge quickly through the ma chinery of impeachment The fact that many states have constitutions which are not adapted to modern conditions. and that conscientious courts interpret these constitutions as they find them and not as they would like to interpret