Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1915-01-22
NEW YORK BAR
ASSOCIATION IN
ROOSEVELT ISSUE
LOCKS HORNS WITH FORMER
PRESIDENT IN SYSTEM OF
JUDICIARY
10y Associated Pre..I


the special committee reports sub
mitted to the New York State Bar
association here today took issue spe-
officially with utterances of former
President Roosevelt concerning the
judiciary system OF the United
States.
The subject was treated under the
professional heading OF The Report
of the Committee of Fundamental
Law In general IL was a studied
reply TO critics who complain OF ju
dicial usurpation OF legislative power
by the American judiciary. but at the
outset the report reviews particularly
the writings OF Col Roosevelt, and in
reply to his arguments, as well as
those of others, it offers 1879 printed
book pages of legal citations, historl.
cal data and other matter.
Paragraphs of Mr. Roosevelts criti-
cism of present tendencies were first
quoted as follows:
Under our American system of
government the Judge occupies a po-
sition such as he occupies nowhere
else In the world, a position which
really makes him, SO far as the mega.
tive side of legislation Is concerned,
the most important Legislative Of
fetal in the country; for of course 1t
is merely to repeat truism to say
what was so well said by an English
bishop two centuries ago, and quoted
by Mr.. Justice Holmes among others:
Whoever hath an absolute au-
thority TO interpret any written or
the law giyer to all intents and pur
poses. and not the person who first
wrote or spoke it, In some most
vital respects the judges have be-
come far more truly the law givers
than either. the executive or the legis-
latiye bodies, state or national, can
be. In no other country is this per-
mitted as with us. In Germany,
France of England. when the people
have spoken and definitely declared
their mind through the legislature,
the courts carry out the popular wish
and apply it as formulated in law.
Here the courts decide whether or
not that wish shall be granted
whether or not the people are to
have their will Surely none will
contend that the judge is not the
servant, so that the created rules the
creator.
did the trainers of the constitu
ton of the United States and the
state conventions which ratified it,
intend that the federal supreme court
should refuse to enforce federal and
state Legislation in excess Of or In
contravention of its provisions ?" asks
the committee.
IF not, by whom and how did they
intend to enforce the provisions Of
the bill of rights in the first ter
amendments to the federal constitu
ton; also the anti-slavery, anti-peon
age, equal protection of the laws due
process of law and equality before
the laws provisions of the bill o
rights contained in the 18th, l4tl
and 18th amendments; also by whom
and how did they intend to determine
conflicts between federal and stat
power?
Under the canon law Throughout
continental Europe during the middl
ages. the national constitution an
laws, including in England part o
Magma Charta and several acts O
parliament, were refused execution
wherever they conhicted with the Sc
called canon law or liberties of tn
church.
In short the American revolutio
was a lawyers revolution to enforc
y Lord Coke's theory of the invalidit
OF acts OF parliament in derogatio
Of common right and of the right
p of Englishmen. When the Trainer
Of the constitution freed themselvt
from parliament absolutism. did the
intend TO substitute consolidate
congressional ahaOlntinm In natloni