Judicial Recall: Address Delivered at St. Louis, Mo., on September 23, 1914, Before the State Bar Association of Missouri, on "The Dilemma of the Judicial Recall,"U.S. Government Printing Office, 1914 - 21 pages |
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Judicial Recall: Address Delivered at St. Louis, Mo. , on September 23, 1914 ... Rome G. Brown No preview available - 2018 |
Judicial Recall: Address Delivered at St. Louis, Mo. , on September 23, 1914 ... Rome G. Brown No preview available - 2018 |
Common terms and phrases
adjudication adoption advocacy of judicial ADVOCATE OF JUDICIAL agitation ALLIES OF SOCIALISM Ameri American bar arbitrary attack BAR ASSOCIATION better citizenship Bill of Rights Buenos Aires Chief Justice Marshall citizen voter Congress constitutional amendment constitutional convention constitutional democracy constitutional government constitutional questions constitutional safeguards constitutionality creed declare a statute deprive DILEMMA electors enforcement enlightened established exercise fact fallacy favor Federal Constitution Federal Supreme Court form of government hue and cry independence invalid judgments judicial function judicial recall judicial-recall advocate judicial-recall measures judiciary legislature liberty limited Lord Salisbury magazine majority Marbury mass meeting ment muckraker Nation obiter dictum Ohio plan oppression pass Pearson's Magazine political present recall of judges recall of judicial recognized refer referendum ballot Republican repudiate repugnant Roosevelt rules of conduct scientific model Socialist statute unconstitutional stolen or usurped subtle and insidious subversive system of government third-term party tion to-day tyranny of monarchy urged vague and mysterious
Popular passages
Page 17 - To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing, if these limits may at any time be passed by those intended to be restrained ? The distinction between a government with limited and unlimited powers is abolished if those limits do not confine the persons on whom they are imposed, and if acts prohibited and acts allowed are of equal obligation.
Page 17 - defines the extent of the powers of the General Government. If the General Legislature should, at any time, overleap their limits, the judicial department is a Constitutional check. If the United States go beyond their powers; if they make a law which the Constitution does not authorize, it is void ; and the judiciary power, the national judges, who, to secure their impartiality, are to be made independent, will declare it to be void.
Page 17 - Judiciary power, the national judges, who, to secure their impartiality are to be made independent, will declare it to be void . On the other hand, if the States go beyond their limits, if they make a law which is a usurpation upon the General Government, the law is void; and upright, independent judges will declare it to be so.
Page 17 - Limitations of this kind can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing.
Page 16 - ... a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, without a line in the Constitution to authorize it, when that body assumed the right to nullify and veto any act of Congress that they chose to hold unconstitutional. This astonishing declaration was made in the case known as Marbury v. Madison, by Chief Justice Marshall. The doctrine was shrewdly set forth in an obiter dictum — that is, in an opinion which did not call for an execution of any mandate of the court— for he knew that Thomas...
Page 15 - ... contracts, even in a case in which the city itself is party, and the court for that reason declares the charter provision unenforceable, nevertheless, a majority of those voting at 'a city election called to pass upon such decision may, arbitrarily, decide the question as to whether the decision shall be enforced or not. This means that those citizens who attend such referendum election may, by a majority vote of those present, decide whether in the particular case in question the constitutional...
Page 15 - ... at a referendum election held to pass upon the decision complained of. If the decision applies to certain city, or city and county, charter provisions, the decision may be recalled by a majority of the votes cast by electors of the municipality in question at a referendum election held to pass upon such decision. Thus, under the judicial decision recall in Colorado, if a city charter provision is found to have the effect to take private property without compensation, or to impair the obligation...
Page 17 - Constitution, expressly providing, as it has ever since provided, for the review in the Supreme Court of the United States of the judgments of inferior Federal courts, as well as for the review of cases where the validity of State statutes or any exercise of State authority should be drawn in question, on the ground of repugnance to the Constitution, treaties or laws of the United States, and the decision should be in favor of their validity. Now how can any man, who is informed of the facts and...
Page 20 - German are systems still more "of vague and mysterious promises," for the very reason that they are based to a still greater extent upon a disregard for precedents. A government of law...
Page 20 - I confess I do not often envy the United States, but there is one feature in their institutions which appears to me the subject of the greatest envy — their magnificent institution of a Supreme Court. In the United States, if Parliament passes any measure inconsistent with the Constitution of the country, there exists a court which will negative it at once, and that gives a stability to the institutions of the country which, under the system of vague and mysterious promises here, we look for in...