The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-05-04
SUPREME COURTS FUNCTION.

SUPREME COURTS FUNCTION y
R In all the tails about statutory restriction
Fof the power Of the supreme court to nullify
legislation, there is not sufficient Importance
attached to the fact that the arbitrary ma.
ture of the court authority has been exag,
AS matter of fact, the real notification
of statutes is inherent in the rejected acts
themselves and not in the court. The court
merely points out wherein The acts rejected
are unconstitutional. 1t assumes, no au-
thority except that given it sunder the con-
stitutibn. The court Is merely the nations
legislative umpire. The rules are laid down
in the constitution and the court applies the
rules to the acts presented for review. 1t
should be remembered that the court does
not have originating jurisdiction; but can
deliberate only in cases formally brought
before it.
-, The proposal that the court be restricted
so as to nullify an act of congress only by
two-thirds majority is arbitrary and would
both defeat the purpose of the courts
function as referee, as well as give congress
wider margin of divergence from constitu-
tional limitations. The situation is far bet
ter as it is. Congress is composed of men
of wide dissmilarity of view and often Of
unframed minds The court has always
been composed of men of the highest attain
ments, intellect and integrity. The nations
welfare has at all times been conserved and
never injured by supreme court decisions
The same cannot be said of congressional
acts.
1t is also frequently overlooked that the
supreme court does not arbitrarily and sum-
marily dismiss acts objected to-. On the con-
trary, the judges go into the minutest detail
as to the grounds on which the decision is
based and as to the respects in which the
act rejected violates the constitution. If
there is an emphatic dissenting opinion, that
also is rendered in equally careful detail.
Instead of standing in the way of the leg
islative freedom of congress, the supreme
court, on the contrary, points out to con-
gress the way, to achieve the purposes it has
had in minds but has improperly codified.
BY careful studying the opinion of the court
in cases wherein laws have been declared
unconstitutional, the nations lawmakers can
come to understand their error and discover
the manner in which the end may be &C.
complished and the error avoided. The court
of last resort is not hindranee to congress
sional enactment, but is a most efficient aid
to legislation that will stand all tests.
Whenever there is a strong demand for
restriction of the courts freedom of applica-
ton of the tests provided by the constitution,
III is well to ask whose toes have been tram
pied on. Every such suggestion has come
from some group other that is temporarily
disgruntled by some decision which blocks a
cherished program. In mood of resent
ment no group of citizens is capable of that
calm judgment which the safety of our in
tstifutions and liberties demands. The .su-
premes court, free from personal animus and
emotion, trained in the fundamentals of the
law and coldly impartial, is the most efficient
protection this nation has. 1t may have
made errors at times, being itself human. 1t
has even reversed itself, showing its own
sincerity. But the totality of its benefit is
beyond computation.
Where any group of persons animated by
the same Legitimate aims and purposes has
been once unfavorably affected by supreme
court decision; that same group has dozens
of times been favorably affected by decisions
Of the same body of men. The upfavorable
Edeeision, also, has rested not on any attitude
of the court, but on the respects in which
the contestants position has been violatiye
of the fundamental law of our land. To
tamper with the supreme court is to lessen
its effectiveness and to open the doors wider
to all sorts of ill,conceiyed and even harmful
enactment: 1t is better to have a standard
whereby laws may be judged before the evil
in them, may work out, than to depend upon
The slow processes of repeal after a portion
of the evil has been accomplished. The SUI
preme court applies that standard.