The Relation of the Judiciary to the Constitution |
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The Relation of the Judiciary to the Constitution William Montgomery Meigs No preview available - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
act of Assembly Act of Parliament action Amer American Doctrine appeal appointed April 11 argument asserted authority Bayard belief British Charles Jared Ingersoll Chief Justice Circuit Court clause colonial colonists consti Constitution contrary Convention Council counsel course Dallas debate decided decree disallowed Doctrine of Judicial doubt enacted evidence Executive exercise Farrand Federal Gouverneur Morris Hayburn held void Holmes Ibid instance Iredell Jersey Plan judges judgment Judi Judicial Bulwark judicial decision Judicial Power Judicial Supremacy Judiciary jurisdiction law void laws of Congress laws passed Legislature Madison matter means ment North Carolina opinion Pennsylvania perhaps plainly President principles Privy Council proposed provisions question referred refuse regard repeal repugnant Review Rhode Island Rutgers seems Stamp Act statute Supreme Court tion to-day Trevett tution unauthorized unconstitutional laws United violation Virginia Waddington Walton Weeden Writs of Assistance wrote York
Popular passages
Page 200 - The Constitution is either a superior, paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, and like other acts is alterable when the Legislature shall please to alter it. If the former part of the alternative be true, then a legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law; if the latter part be true, then written Constitutions are absurd attempts on the part of the people to limit a power in its own nature illimitable.
Page 199 - The question whether an act repugnant to the Constitution can become the law of the land is a question deeply interesting to the United States; but, happily, not of an intricacy proportioned to its interest. It seems only necessary to recognize certain principles supposed to have been long and well established to decide it.
Page 190 - If any act of Congress, or of the Legislature of a state, violates those constitutional provisions, it is unquestionably void; though, I admit, that as the authority to declare it void is of a delicate and awful nature, the Court will never resort to that authority, but in a clear and urgent case.
Page 167 - 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 judicial 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,...
Page 128 - Resolved, that the executive, and a convenient number of the national judiciary, ought to compose a council of revision, with authority to examine every act of the national legislature, before it shall operate, and every act of a particular legislature before a negative thereon shall be final ; and that the dissent of the said council shall amount to a rejection, unless the act of the national legislature be again passed, or that of a particular legislature be again negatived by of the members of...
Page 131 - Confederation, and moreover to legislate in all cases to which the separate States are incompetent, or in which the harmony of the United States may be interrupted by the exercise of individual legislation ; to negative all laws passed by the several States contravening, in the opinion of the National Legislature, the Articles of Union, or any treaty subsisting under the authority of the Union...
Page 199 - Thus, the particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the Constitution is void; and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.
Page 201 - Certainly all those •who have framed written Constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be that an act of the Legislature repugnant to the Constitution is void.
Page 50 - Parliaments are in all cases to declare what is for the good of the whole ; but it is not the declaration of Parliament that makes it so. There must be in every instance a higher authority, viz. God. Should an act of Parliament be against any of his natural laws, which are immutably true, their declaration would be contrary to eternal truth, equity and justice, and consequently void: and so it would be adjudged by the Parliament itself, when convinced of their mistake.
Page 197 - to issue writs of mandamus in cases warranted by the principles and usages of law, to any courts appointed, or persons holding office, under the authority of the United States.