The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-12-27
FRIDAY. DECEMBER Il. 1875.
SUPER-LEGISLATURE?

nURS is unique system of governmental gov
~ eminent Of checks and balances. The system
was designed to reserve to state governments all
authority over matters relating to home rule, and
to extend to the Federal government authority
matters relating to the national welfare.
Continuing that theory of balance, the Federal
government-as do the state governments-has three
equal and coordinate branches. Tie legislative
branch possesses the power of ard responsibility
for initiation Of policies The executive branch is
charged with the enforcement of policies and laws
The judicial branch is empowered to interpret poll
cies and laws
This system Of government may not be the best
OF all possible systems but it is ours-and like it.
And to preserve it we need to be ever on guard
against anything which threatens to upset that basic
balance
In the last month, two grave warnings that our
system is getting out of balance have come from no
less impressive a source than the United States
Supreme Court itself The warnings were contained
in two dissenting opinions signed by three justices,
saying that the two majority decisions handed down
by the six other justices established dangerous prece-
dents
In our case the six majority justices knocked
down Vermont income tax law limiting the rate
of interest charged for money.
Justice Stone-Justices Brandeis and Cardozo
concurring-dissented saying the majority justices
action threat sufficient to apprehension
for the rghtful independence of local government"
Satirically commenting on the majority justices
assumption of superior wisdom, Justice Stone said:
IF in the face of so much which is persuasive
of the legitimate purpose and effect of this legis-
lation to declare that can not say whether
the benefits intended either will or will not result,
it does not follow that the Vermont Legislature is
similarly uniformed"
TN the other case the six majority justices in
validated a law passed by Congress imposing a
Federal excise tax liquor dealers who evade state
laws. The majority held that what Congress had
said tax was actually not tax but an attempt
TO exercise state police power.
Dissenting, Justice Cardozo-Justices Brandeis
and Stone concurring-recalled that many years ago
In the famous sinking fund the United States
Supreme Court had declared:
Every presumption is in favor of the validity of
Uatute, and this continues until the contrary has
been shown beyond rational doubt. One branch
OF the government can not encroach on the domain
of another without danger. The safety of in
situations depends in no small degree a strict
observance of this salutary rule"
This rule Of caution, the dissenting justices said
had been forgotten or neglected"
Thus the process of psychoanalyss has spread to
unaccustomed fields" they added.
These three thoughtful jurists do not handy LAM
entatons lightly When they clothe dire warnings in
such cogent phrases, it behooves the American peo-
pie to sit up and look about.
The issue is important because minor Federal
Judges and the United States Supreme Court are
now passing upon the major New Deal legislative
reforms affecting the lives and the welfare and the
hapDinesS of orr 127 O0O O00 naone
But beyond these considerations lies something
even more fundamental-the essential balance in our
system of government If judges, who are appointed
for life and who not responsible to the people,
make themselves supreme in legislative matters over
the elected representatives of the people, democracy
yields to judicial dictatorship and the balance in our
system topples