Constitutional Court

“ Some council, tribunal, or other arbiter—let us, for the sake of simplicity, call it the Federal Court—would have authority to determine whether a law was or was not constitutional, or, in other words, whether it was or was not a law. Let no one fancy that the restraint placed on the power of ordinary legislation by the authority of a Federal Court; which alone can interpret the constitution, is a mere form which has no practical effect. The history of the United States is on this point decisive. ”

“ And this power being a general one, congress may provide for the punishment of one class of offenses in one court, and another class in a different court. There is no necessity for, and no constitutional provision compelling, full and exclusive jurisdiction in one tribunal, and the policy of congress for a long time has been to give only a limited jurisdiction to the United States courts. ”

“ Still less does it make the latter legislative courts, which is the effect of the statute now being considered. It is one thing to say that legislative courts may exercise jurisdiction over some of the same matters that are within Art. III judicial power. It is quite another thing to hold that constitutional courts may take cognizance of causes which are not within the scope of that power. ”

“ Secondly, while it may be true that when one part of a statute is valid and constitutional, and another part is unconstitutional and void, the court may enforce the valid part where they are distinctly separable so that each can stand alone, it is not within the judicial province to give to the words used by Congress a narrower meaning than they are manifestly intended to bear in order that crimes may be punished which are not described in language that brings them within the constitutional power of that body. ”

“ There is, in fact, no absolute and certain limitation, in any constitutional government, to the powers of its own judiciary; for, as those powers are derived from the Constitution, and as the judges are the interpreters of the Constitution, there is nothing to prevent them from interpreting in favor of any power which they may claim. The supreme court, therefore, may assume jurisdiction over subjects and between parties, not allowed by the constitution, and there is no power in the federal government to gainsay it. ”

“ Congress having exercised its constitutional authority to impose on the Government a legally binding obligation, the decisive question is whether it invaded the judicial province of the Court of Claims by directing it to determine the extent of the obligation by reference, as directed, to the specified facts, and to give judgment for that amount. ”

“ Many times I have seen the court refuse to admit proof of an alleged confession of a defendant, and I could see that the jury trying the case and the people sitting in the court room were surprised that the judge would not admit such proof even when the confession was signed by the defendant; but the jury and the people did not happen to think of this constitutional provision. Perhaps they had never heard of it. Every judge is sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution. No judge can permit any provision of the Constitution to be violated if he can help it. A man is on trial before him. ”

“ To suggest that when this Court finds that a law is not offensive to the Constitution and that it must therefore stand, we make the same kind of judgment as when on rare occasions we find that a law is offensive to the Constitution and must therefore fall, is to disregard the role of this Court in our Constitutional system since its establishment in 1789. ”

“ Yet we now hold that if a party, who is sent by the federal court to the state courts for a preliminary ruling, submits the whole problem to those courts-that is, the constitutional as well as the bare bones of the state law question-he is presumed to have elected to try his case there rather than in the federal courts, unless he expressly reserved the right to return to the federal tribunal. Perhaps the Court does that to avoid the consequences of res judicata. But res judicata is not a constitutional principle; it has no higher dignity than the principle we announce today. ”

“ The constitutional provision, therefore, must mean that no agency of the State, or of the officers or agents by whom its powers are executed, shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. ”

“ So too a federal court, adhering to the salutary policy of refraining from the unnecessary decision of constitutional questions, may stay proceedings before it, to enable the parties to litigate first in the state courts questions of state law, decision of which is preliminary to, and may render unnecessary, decision of the constitutional questions presented. ”

“ The Court wholly ignores the question whether the choice made by the defendant is one that the State could constitutionally require.
Looked at from any angle, the concept of waiver which the Court has created must be found wanting. Of gravest importance, it carries this Court into a sphere in which it has no proper place in the context of the federal system. The true limitations on our constitutional power are those inherent in the rule requiring that a judgment resting on an adequate state ground must be respected. ”

“ In any case, the answer to [plaintiffs'] assertions is that such considerations of policy cannot override the constitutional limitation on the authority of the federal judiciary to adjudicate suits against a State. ”

“ Once again I dissent from any such view of the Constitution. Where accepted, its result is to make this Court not a Constitution-interpreter, but a day-to-day Constitution-maker.
But even if the Due Process Clause could possibly be construed as giving such latitudinarian powers to the Court, I would still think the Court goes too far in holding that the courts can look at the particular circumstances or each identification lineup to determine at large whether they are too 'suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identification' to be constitutional. ”

“ This was the power of the Federal courts to protect those who come before them relying upon constitutional rights or rights given, as in this case, through a statute enacted pursuant to constitutional grants of power. ”

“ Since the Constitutional Court alone is vested with the authority under the Constitution to remove a statute that is unconstitutional, even if the executive branch suspects a particular statute to be unconstitutional, the executive branch should make every possible effort to respect and implement the law unless and until the Constitutional Court holds such statute unconstitutional. ”

“ A century and a half of constitutional history and government admonishes this Court to leave that choice to the elected legislative representatives of the people themselves, where it properly belongs both on democratic principles and the requirements of efficient government. ”

“ No higher duty, no more solemn responsibility, rests upon this Court, than that of translating into living law and maintaining this constitutional shield deliberately planned and inscribed for the benefit of every human being subject to our Constitution-of whatever race, creed or persuasion. ”

“ Courts as well as citizens are not free 'to ignore all the procedures of the law,' to use the Court's language. The 'constitutional freedom' of which the Court speaks can be won only if judges honor the Constitution. ”

“ Therefore, even a constitutional custom previously established as such may no longer have the force as the constitutional norm, the moment it loses the legal conviction of the citizens thereupon. Judgment upon the existence of such legal conviction of the citizens is subject to the authority and the obligation of the Constitutional Court, which interprets the existence and nonexistence of the constitution. ”

“ Now and then an extraordinary case may turn up, but constitutional law, like other mortal contrivances, has to take some chances, and in the great majority of instances, no doubt, justice will be done. ”

“ However, pursuant to the principle of the rule of law that is a basic principle of our Constitution, any and all government power including the President and the National Assembly must be subject to the rule of law, and the limit that all state function is the means to realize the value of basic rights of the citizens must uncompromisingly be observed. Also, the Constitutional Court is a state institution that is dedicated to the protection of the Constitution and the guarantee of the basic rights of the citizens. ”

“ Therefore, the question of in which relations the grounds for impeachment are legally examined is absolutely for the Constitutional Court to determine. The principle of due process is a legal principle that, before a decision is made by the governmental power, entitles a citizen who might be prejudiced by such a decision to an opportunity to express his or her opinion and thereby influence the process of the proceedings and the result thereof. ”

“ After the Constitutional Court rendered the Decision No. 16/2545, ruling that the Court of Justice Judicial Service Act, BE 2543 (2000) , section 26, paragraph 1 (10) , was not attacked by a question of constitutionality under the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, Buddhist Era 2540 (1997) , section 30, Thailand has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 29 July 2008 and is bound to implement the obligations under the said Convention as from 28 August 2008. ”

“ The Judiciary, including this Court, is the most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or even the design of the Constitution. ”

“ When the Applicant reached the age of sixty five on 5 July 2010 according to the judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court, she was required by the Organic Act on State Audit, BE 2542 (1999) , section 34 (2) , to leave the office of Auditor General. As she is no further the Auditor General by operation of law, she is no longer entitled by the Constitution, section 301, paragraph 2, to exercise the authority of the President and Members of the State Audit Commission to file any application with the Constitutional Court on behalf of the State Audit Commission, a constitutional organ. ”

“ Having viewed the three petitions, the Constitutional Court found that the facts stated therein do not yet suffice to adopt an order as to whether the three petitions are admissible. Seeing necessary to examine the relevant parties for additional facts, the Constitutional Court summoned the 1st Respondent, who is the President of the Siam Protection Organisation, and Air Marshal Watchara Ritthakhani, the Spokesperson of the Siam Protection Organisation, to appear and interrogated them. ”

“ And paragraph 2 reads: "Where any person or political party commits the act forbidden by paragraph 1, a person aware of the act shall be entitled to refer the matter to the Attorney General for investigation and request the Constitutional Court to order the discontinuation of the act, without prejudice to the criminal prosecutions against the actor". ”

“ The concept that the Bill of Rights and other constitutional protections against arbitrary government are inoperative when they become inconvenient or when expediency dictates otherwise is a very dangerous doctrine and, if allowed to flourish, would destroy the benefit of a written Constitution and undermine the basis of our Government. ”

“ We believe as much as Judge Douglas (perhaps more) in obedience to, and respect for, the judicial department of government. We think its decisions on constitutional questions, when fully settled, should control not only the particular cases decided, but the general policy of the country, subject to be disturbed only by amendments of the Constitution as provided in that instrument itself. More than this would be revolution. But we think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it to overrule this. We offer no resistance to it.
Judicial decisions are of greater or less authority as precedents according to circumstances. ”

“ The interpretation of constitutional principles must not be too literal. We must remember that the machinery of government would not work if it were not allowed a little play in its joints. ”

“ This obligation, in turn, requires that any enactment of Parliament should be judged by standards laid down by the Constitution. The judiciary has the duty of implementing the constitutional safeguards that protect individual rights. When the State seeks to take away the individual fundamental right to life, the safeguards of the Constitution should be examined with special diligence. When it appears that an act of Parliament conflicts with the provisions of the Constitution, we have no choice but to enforce the paramount commands of the Constitution. ”

“ When we observe the importance, which that constitution attaches to the independence of judges, we are the less inclined to suppose, that it can have intended to leave these constitutional questions to tribunals, where this independence may not exist, in all eases where a state shall prosecute an individual, who claims the protection of an act of congress. ”

“ The reason the framers of the constitution set forth a far more rigid procedure for the revision of the constitution than the general statute is, to deter arbitrary changes of the substance of the constitutional text, which is an express representation of the will of the sovereign. On the contrary, changes in the constitutional law matters that are not contained in the constitution or the unwritten constitution do not constitute constitutional revision, and may be handled by the general procedure of representative democracy established by our constitution, that is, the enactment of statute. ”