Evening star., 1924-01-05
IN TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT
BY PAUL v. COLLINS

Much Is written aAvut the ancient
republics OF 0reses and Rome, as Il
they were predecessors Of the re.
public Of the United States ef Amer
Tea In fact. they were aristseratie
elisNrchies. In which neither the re-
straint of written constitutions ner
| any expression Of the whole people
affected the dietation OF the ruling
classes.
The government Of Great britain is
erreneoasly called constitutional
monarchy. In reality le 10 what the
government Of thee United States
never was--a popular government" ;"
Great Britain is ruled by q cabinet,
amenable to parliament, whose house
OF commons is directly subject to the
people, as is our Congress-. II the
parliament and the cabinet agree,
they can pass any law, however 1t
may revolutionize the very essence
OF the government, and Il Will stand
as law until the people have an on
portunity to elect new members wfe,
Deing In harmon.- with public sent.
ment, Will repeal the obnoxious law.
No court can challenge the law, for
a, anere y no written, fundAm entail
the popular government" Of ENGLAND
more than 1t does the government OF
the United States. for France. too. IA
governed by responsible minis
try" The same Is true Of practically
al the new republics growing out Of
In England the rights Of the people
are only those which have been
Wresteu from the crown. descending
from above to the masses. In the
United States the rights originate
with the people and remain with
them. except such as are assigned by
the people, to the government through
the Constitution, which "we. the uHo.
ple, have adopted. There has been
h no precedent to the constitutional re-
lea. There As no polar star Of history
by which this nation can ruide ri,
course. The people definitely as
signed certain OF their powers TO III .
written Constitution and provided
ssnmsnt asnnats means Tns1sSv for amending "a.
became the supreme and fundamenfsi
law OF the land. The Conetitution 10
not above the peopla"---it Is the az
pressed VIII OF the people themselves.
BY the Constitution tho people e.-
tablished government Of three
Observation-Disclosures, executive and
judicial. In establishing the Judi
ciary the Constitution DEGREES that
lit shall be vested in one Supreme
Court and such inferior courts as
Congress may from time to time or
dain and establish" ConSress, then.
did not establish the Supreme Court
TO Congress were left the minor de-
tails OF deciding how many members
are needed to carry on the Supreme
crease the membership II can never
reduce the number except by per
mitting vacancies caused by death or
resignation to remain untitled, nor
can 1t circumscribe it's constitu-
tional authority to decide all judicial
or otherwise.
Senator Borah has introduced a bill
requiring that all decisions of the
Supreme Court which declare a law
OF Congress unconstitutional shall be
concurred in by seven of the nine
members and not by q majority OF
five to four. The consensus OF opin-
ion Of lawyers who have expressed
opposition to the bill Is that it yio-
lates the very essence Of the author
ity Of the combined Justices as vested
by the Constitution. When the Su-
preme Court is confronted with two
laws--the provision Of the Constitu-
tion and conflicting legislation-the
court must decide that the "funda-
mental law is always superior to
legislation" The opponents OF the
Borah measure state that II Congress-
were to enact law which required
that any decision Of majority OF the
court should be void on which six
justices coincided against the judg-