Melville Fuller

“ What more certainly infringes upon his liberty than for the legislature of the state, by merely arbitrary action, in violation of the rules and forms required by due process of law, to take from him the right to discharge the public duties imposed upon him by his fellow citizens in accordance with law? Can it be that the right to pursue a lawful calling is a part of one's liberty secured by the 14th Amendment against illegal deprivation ”

“ But what was said by Chief Justice Marshall, speaking for this court in Cohen v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 404, 5 L. ed. 291, may well be repeated: 'It is most true that this court will not take jurisdiction if it should not; but it is equally true that it must take jurisdiction if it should. The judiciary cannot, as the legislature may, avoid a measure because it approaches the confines of the Constitution. We cannot pass it by because it is doubtful. With whatever doubts, with whatever difficulties, a case may be attended, we must decide it if it be brought before us. ”

“ The assassination of an individual demands the severest punishment which it is competent for human laws in a free land to prescribe. But the overturning of the public will, as expressed at the ballot box, without evidence or against evidence, in order to accomplish partisan ends, is a crime against free government, and deserves the execration of all lovers of liberty. ”

“ The former crime, if the offender be discovered, can be punished as directed by law. The latter should not be rewarded by a declaration of the inability of the judiciary to protect public and private rights, and thereby the rights of voters, against the wilful, arbitrary action of a legislative tribunal which, we must assume from the record, deliberately acted upon a contested election case involving the rights of the people and of their chosen representative in the office of governor without looking into the evidence upon which alone any lawful determination of the case could be made. ”

“ I do not ignore the many allegations of wrong, such as that the selection of the committee was not by lot, as prescribed by the laws, but was a trick on the part of the clerks of the assembly, and it must be conceded that the outcome of that drawing lends support to this allegation. Curious results sometimes happen by chance, but when those results happen so largely along the lines of the purposes of those who have control of the supposed chance, it is not strange that outsiders are apt to feel that purpose, and not chance, determined the result. ”

“ We must decline to take jurisdiction on the ground of deprivation of rights embraced by the 14th Amendment, without due process of law, or of the violation of the guaranty of a republican form of government by reason of similar deprivation. ”

“ In its internal administration the state (so far as concerns the Federal government) has entire freedom of choice as to the creation of an office for purely state purposes, and of the terms upon which it shall be held by the persons filling the office. And in such matters the decision of the state court, that the procedure by which an officer has been suspended or removed from office was regular and was under a constitutional and valid statute, must generally be conclusive in this court. ”

“ But of what value is that right if the person selected by the people at the polls for an office provided for by the Constitution, and holding a certificate of election, may be deprived of that office by the arbitrary action f the legislature proceeding altogether without evidence? ”

“ Let us see whether, in dismissing the writ of error for want of jurisdiction, the majority have not departed from the rulings of this court in former cases. This question, it cannot be doubted, is one of serious moment. ”

“ It follows, then, upon principle, that in every perfect or competent government there must exist a general power to enact and to repeal laws, and to create, and change or discontinue, the agents designated for the execution of those laws. Such a power is indispensable for the preservation of the body politic, and for the safety of the individuals of the community. ”

“ Rep. 427, this court unanimously held that the liberty mentioned in the 14th Amendment 'means not only the right of the citizen to be free from the mere physical restraint of his person, as by incarceration, but the term is deemed to embrace the right of the citizen to be free in the enjoyment of all his faculties; to be free to use them in all lawful ways; to live and work where he will; to earn his livelihood by any lawful calling ”

“ If any person so selected shall swear that he cannot, without great personal inconvenience, serve on the board, or that he feels an undue bias for or against either of the parties, he may be excused by the house from which he was chosen from serving on the board, and if it appears that the person so selected is related to either party, or is liable to any other proper objection on the score of its partiality, he shall be excused. ”

“ The selection of officers, who are nothing more than agents for the effectuating of such public purposes, is matter of public convenience or necessity, and so, too, are the periods for the appointment of such agents ”

“ It appeared that thereupon said Goebel and Beckham on that day, February 2, took the oath of office; that on January 30 William Goebel was shot by an assassin, receiving a wound from which he afterward died on February 3; and that on January 31 defendant Taylor as governor issued a proclamation declaring that a state of insurrection existed at Frankfort, Kentucky, adjourning the general assembly until February 6, and ordering it then to assemble at the town of London, in Laurel county. ”

“ Webster's argument in that case took a wider sweep, and contained a masterly statement of the American system of government as recognizing that the people are the source of all political power, but that, as the exercise of governmental powers immediately by the people themselves is impracticable, they must be exercised by representatives of the people ”

“ The prayer of the defendants was that the bill be dismissed, that J. C. W. Beckham be adjudged a usurper, and that William S. Taylor and John Marshall be, respectively, adjudged the governor and lieutenant governor of the commonwealth. ”