Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1916-06-30
Personal Prattle s ssss ~ s. Hs'.s,

stitution provides for three co-ordin-
ate branches of government, the leg
islative, executive and judicial and
expressly reserves in the people all
powers not specifically granted to
those branches. When the federal
constitution was adopted no court Of
any civilized nation was exercising
the power to override the law MAX
ing body.
Under the common law, as adopted
by us from England, the law making
body was supreme, and for more than
two hundred years no court or king
has ventured to nullify any act reg
ularly passed by parliament. The
question of board of revision, com.
posed Of the president and some of the
judges Of the supreme court, to pass
on the constitutionality of the acts of
congress, was before the constitutional
convention of 1887, and was voted
down four times, that body plainly
being of opinion that laws enacted by
the representatives of the people
should constitute the supreme law of
the land.
In France, under a written constitu.
ton, the civil law provides that laws
passed by the legislative body shall
be supreme and final. Even imperial
Germany permits no Judge or court to
override her law making body. But,
here in a republican democracy, one
or two judges on the federal supreme
bench hold the power to override any
act of congress or nullify the acts of
state legislature. A majority Of
the supreme court, whose members
are not selected by the people, WELD
a power never contemplated by the
founders of the nation, and since the
days of Chief Justice Marshall have
shown disposition to spread and en-
large that power.
The fourteenth amendment to the
constitution, adopted in 1868, as
protection to the recently freed slaves
provides in the first section that,
"Nor shall any state deprive any
person of life, liberty or property,
without due process of law" In
1886, the supreme court unanimously
held that the word person" in that
n Il o1c IN
lions, in the case of Santa Clara VS..
the Southern Pacific Railroad, 118 U.
S., 1914. The effect of this interpreta-
ton was to make the supreme court
the guardian and final supervisor not
only of federal statutes but of all
state statutes, and of municipal ordi-
nances as we'll, until today no act of
congress, no state statute, no city or
dinance can be passed without ask
ing the question: Will the supreme
court of the United States let it
stands. This. too, in the face of the
fact that forty-six of the forty-eight
states affirm in their constitutions
that "All political power is inherent
in the people,"
Judge Wanamaker suggests as a
partial remedy for this usurpation of
power law providing that before a
statute could be declared unconstitu-
tional, the decision must be concur
red in by at least seven of the nine
judges, not by bare majority as at
present To curb the state supreme
court, Ohio has adopted constitution
al amendment, providing that: "No
law shall be held unconstitutional
and void by the supreme court with
out the concurrence of at least all but
one of the judges" provision that
might be incorporated into the con-
stitution Of the state of Washington
to it's advantage.
Judge Wanamaker will be one of
the speakers at our Chautauqua.-Ed.)