The

momentous importance of this decision.

The new conditions of our

social and industrial life.

But I have more than trespassed upon the kind indulgence of the court. I have felt the responsibility of this case as I have never felt one before and never expect to again. I do not believe that any member of this court ever sat or ever will sit to hear and decide a case the consequences of which will be so far-reaching as this — not even the venerable member who survives from the early days of the civil war, and has sat upon every question of reconstruction, of national destiny, of state destiny that has come up during the last thirty years. No member of this court will live long enough to hear a case which will involve a question of more importance than this, the preservation of the fundamental rights of private property and equality before the law, and the ability of the people of these United States to rely upon the guaranties of the Constitution. If it be true, as my friend said in closing, that the passions of the people are aroused on this subject, if it be true that a mighty army of sixty million citizens is likely to be incensed by this decision, it is the more vital to the future welfare of this country that this court again resolutely and courageously declare, as Marshall did, that it has the power to set aside an act of Congress violative of the Constitution, and that it will not hesitate in executing that power, no matter what the threatened consequences of popular or populistic wrath may be. With the deepest earnestness and confidence we submit that all patriotic Americans must pray that our views shall prevail. We could not magnify the scope of your decision, whatever it may be. No mortal could rise above "the height of this great argument."

117. The Courts and Social Policy

The connection between constitutional law and social policy is discussed in the following manner by President Roosevelt in a message to Congress.

The rapid changes in our social and industrial life which have attended this rapid growth have made it necessary that, in applying to concrete cases, the great rules of right laid down in our Constitution, there should be a full understanding and apprecia

tion of the new conditions to which the rules are to be applied. What would have been an infringement upon liberty half a century ago may be the necessary safeguard of liberty to-day. What would have been an injury to property then may be necessary to the enjoyment of property now. Every judicial decision involves two terms-one, an interpretation of the law; the other, the understanding of the facts to which it is to be applied. The great mass of our judicial officers are, I believe, alive to these changes of conditions which so materially affect the performance of their judicial duties. Our judicial system is sound and effective at core, and it remains, and must ever be maintained, as the safeguard of those principles of liberty and justice which stand at the foundation of American institutions; for, as Burke finely said, when liberty and justice are separated, neither is safe.

There are, however, some members of the judicial body who have lagged behind in their understanding of these great and vital changes in the body politic, whose minds have never been opened to the new applications of the old principles made necessary by the new conditions. Judges of this stamp do lasting harm by their decisions, because they convince poor men in need of protection that the courts of the land are profoundly ignorant of and out of sympathy with their deeds, and profoundly indifferent or hostile to any proposed remedy. To such men it seems a cruel mockery to have any court decide against them on the ground that it desires to preserve "liberty" in a purely technical form, by withholding liberty in any real and constructive sense. It is desirable that the legislative body should possess, and wherever necessary exercise, the power to determine whether in a given case employers and employees are not on an equal footing, so that the necessities of the latter compel them to submit to such exactions as to hours and conditions of labor as unduly to tax their strength; and only mischief can result when such determination is upset on the ground that there must be no "interference with the liberty to contract" often a merely academic "liberty," the exercise of which is the negation of real liberty.

Technical liberty vs. real liberty.

The great terms of law have social interpretations.

The

supremacy of the judiciary

an American idea.

The chief lawmakers in our country may be, and often are, the judges, because they are the final seat of authority. Every time they interpret contract, property, vested rights, due process of law, liberty, they necessarily enact into law parts of a system of social philosophy; and as such interpretation is fundamental, they give direction to all law-making. The decisions of the courts on economic and social questions depend upon their economic and social philosophy; and for the peaceful progress of our people during the twentieth century we shall owe most to those judges who hold to a twentieth-century economic and social philosophy and not to a long outgrown philosophy, which was itself the product of primitive economic conditions. Of course a judge's views on progressive social philosophy are entirely second in importance to his possession of a high and fine character; which means the possession of such elementary virtues as honesty, courage, and fairmindedness. The judge who owes his election to pandering to demagogic sentiments or class hatreds and prejudices, and the judge who owes either his election or his appointment to the money or the favor of a great corporation, are alike unworthy to sit on the bench, are alike traitors to the people; and no profundity of legal learning, or correctness of abstract conviction on questions of public policy, can serve as an offset to such shortcomings. But it is also true that judges, like executives and legislators, should hold sound views on the questions of public policy which are of vital interest to the people.

118. The Place of the Supreme Court in Our System

The American theory as to the function of the judiciary is thus admirably summed up by Mr. Sherley in a speech made in the House of Representatives:

We live under a peculiar government, due to its dual character and limited power. We have to determine in this country not only what we ought to do, but what we can do, because we have a government, limited both as to which sovereignty shall exercise

the power and limited also as to what matters can be dealt with at all. The one important original idea contained in the Constitution of the United States is the supremacy given to the judiciary. The thing that makes our constitution unique from every one in the world is the fact that the Supreme Court of the United States is given power to say whether the other branches of the government have exceeded their power; has the right to declare null and void an act of the legislature of the national Government; has the right to have disregarded the action of the executive when it is beyond his power; and has the further right to say when the states have exceeded their sovereign powers. That is the greatest power ever given to a tribunal and it is as I have said the one great characteristic of the American constitution, and to it we owe more of the stability and grandeur of this country than to any other provision in that instrument. . . .

court is

There have been times when the decisions of this court in the The performance of its great functions have aroused great excitement generally and at times great indignation; but with the exception of the Dred supported by the Scott case nearly every decision of that court undertaking to lay nation. down the limits of national and state power has met with the final approval of the American people; and to-day it may not be inappropriate when it has become the fashion of some of those in high places to criticise the judiciary, to call attention to these facts. Certainly, no man from my section of the country should ever care to utter a condemnation of the judiciary, for when passion ran riot, when men had lost their judgment, when the results of four years of bitter war produced legislation aimed not at justice, but frequently at punishment, it was the Supreme Court that stood between the citizen and his liberties and the passion of the hour [applause] and I trust the day will never come when the American people will not be willing to submit respectfully and gladly to the decrees of that august tribunal. Temporarily they may seem to thwart the will of the people but in their final analysis they will make as they have made for orderly government, for government of laws and not of men, and we may be sure that the

Supreme Court in the pure atmosphere of judicial inquiry that has always surrounded it will arrive at a better interpretation of the powers of both state and national governments than can be possibly hoped for in a forum like this where popular prejudice and the passions of the hour affect all of us whether we will or no.