Gouverneur Morris Quotes
Federal judges will never be so wild, so absurd, so mad as to pretend that they are superior to the legislative power of America.
Some of the Founding Fathers did not conceive of the kind of judiciary where Federal courts could nullify an act of the Congress by declaring a law unconstitutional. Morris was one. Others did. The Constitution is not very explicit on this point, but the nation has settled with a process that would have surprised Morris and a few others.
Gouverneur Morris, 1752-1816, U. S. Commissioner to England & U. S. Minister to France, U. S. Senator (Federalist, NY), Quoted in Howard Swiggett, The Extraordinary Mr. Morris
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In many nations, there is little judicial independence from the government. Judicial decisions that thwart government sometimes produce retaliation ranging from reducing the pay or staff of judges, threatened investigations and impeachment even arrest and execution---sometimes by government ‘death squads’. Even in the United States, the beginning of the 21st century, was fraught with so many examples of judicial intimidation threats, that two Supreme Court justices began speaking throughout the country to educate the public to this problem. In general, the more democratic and free a nation is, the more frequently the courts will disallow activities of the executive and even the legislature.
Jefferson, like most Presidents and ex-presidents, had his concerns about the judiciary and judicial checks, especially of the Executive Branch.
One of the conundrums of our constitutional system is who has the last word as to what the Constitution means. Essentially it is the judicial branch headed by the Supreme Court. But there are those who believe that the current popular majority should have a say in what is or is not constitutional. If so the legislative branch should have the last word. Still others say that the President is the only person elected by ALL the people, so his opinion most reflects the will of the public. And then there are most who argue that the Constitutional system was created just to avoid the power of currently popular majorities, and the courts should decide based on the Constitution itself. So the statement has very little meaning except that Phillips thinks that the courts have too much power. Whoever gets to decide what is or is not Constitutional will be accused of being “over” the Constitution by those who don’t like the decisions. In our system, that is the courts.
President Abraham Lincoln had pocket vetoed his own party's reconstruction bill in the midst of an election year.
This constitution was written 7 years before the national constitutional convention. It shows that there was concern about the separation of powers in United States even before the Constitution was drafted. See {616750} for an even clearer statement of the separation of powers principle.
Hatch was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time.
Judicial Review is the principle which allows a court—judges—to declare an act of the legislature or the executive improper and unlawful. It is a standard principle of American government yet it was not explicitly stated in the Constitution. Hence to some, there is a question about the legitimacy of Judicial Review itself. Many nations do not have it. Many people think it is the most important aspect of a democratic society as it provides a check on both the executive and the legislature.
Gouverneur Morris was an American statesman, a Founding Father of the United States, and a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. He wrote the Preamble to the United States Constitution and has been called the "Penman of the Constitution." In an era when most Americans thought of themselves as citizens of their respective states, Morris advanced the idea of being a citizen of a single union of states. He was also one of the most outspoken opponents of slavery among all of those who were present at the Constitutional Convention. He represented New York in the United States Senate from 1800 to 1803.
