National Legislature

“ We admit, as all must admit, that the powers of the Government are limited, and that its limits are not to be transcended. But we think the sound construction of the Constitution must allow to the national legislature that discretion with respect to the means by which the powers it confers are to be carried into execution which will enable that body to perform the high duties assigned to it in the manner most beneficial to the people. ”

“ There are other cases holding the act to be legislative; but whether it is judicial, legislative, or administrative is immaterial. Let it be which it may, it is not above the control of the courts in proper cases. * * * We are not inclined to the doctrine, asserted by the appellant in this case, that every subordinate body of officers to whom the legislature delegates what may be regarded as legislative power thereby becomes a part of the legislative branch of the state government and beyond judicial control. ”

“ Rights of the States to be protected; Negative on Laws, 206
Acts and Treaties the supreme Law, 207
Electors, their Appointment by the Legislature; Term, 208 18.
National Judiciary; Nomination, 209
Inferior Tribunals; New States, 210 19.
National Executive; Electors' Term, 211 20.
Supreme Executive; Elections; Qualifications; Removable; Impeachment, 212 21.
Pay; Negative on Acts; Nomination and Appointment of Judges, 214 23.
Amendments; Oath to support the Constitution, 215
Representation; Vote per Capita, 215
Reference of Proceedings ”

“ Any general expression in a legislative act must, necessarily, be restrained to objects within the jurisdiction of the Legislature passing the act. Of consequence an act of Congress can only be construed to apply to the territory of the United States, comprehending every person within it, and to the citizens of the United States. ”

“ Resolved, as the opinion of this committee, that nothing in the Constitution, now under consideration, shall be construed to authorize the Congress to make or alter any regulations, in any state, respecting the times, places, or manner of holding elections for senators or representatives, unless the legislature of such state shall neglect or refuse to make laws or regulations for the purpose, or, from any circumstance, be incapable of making the same, and then only until the legislature of such state shall make provision in the premises. ”

“ It must be recollected, sir, that we have repeatedly admitted the right of the Legislature to change, alter, modify, and amend the judiciary system, so as best to promote the interests of the people. We only contend that you shall not exceed or contravene the authority by which you act. But, say gentlemen, you forced this new office on the district judges, and this is in effect a new appointment. ”

“ While the Judiciary firmly, independently, and uprightly, discharge their duty and declare the act of the Legislature contrary to the constitution, to be void, the Legislature are checked, and the citizen shielded from oppression and persecution. But, ask gentlemen, whence do the courts derive this power, and the honorable gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Thompson) says, we are contending for this common law doctrine, that the courts are a check on the Legislature. If I misunderstood the gentleman, I trust he will correct me. ”

“ When the first drafts of the Constitution were made, instead of saying "in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives," they called it "the Legislature." What is a Legislature? A law-making body organized, not a mob, but an organized body to make laws; and so the law-making power of this Union, consisting of these two houses, is brought together. But it seems to me a most unreasonable proposition to withhold from the law-making power of this government the authority to regulate this subject and yet be willing to intrust it to a single hand. ”

“ No! they reserved a great share of Legislative power to themselves, and delegated it to Congress only in certain cases, best calculated, in their opinions, to advance their own happiness; and unquestionably reserved every right, power, and sovereignty, which they did [Pg 673] not expressly give away by the constitution itself. The powers of legislation are the powers of making statutes in all cases respecting men and things within the jurisdiction of the Legislature ”

“ No reason is perceived why this body of men, in their important relations to the courts of the nation, are not subject to the action of Congress, to the same extent that they are under legislative control in the States, or in any other government; and to the same extent that the judges, clerks, marshals, and other officers of the court are subject to congressional legislation. ”

“ The Constitution has not only made a general delegation of the legislative power to one branch of the Government, of the executive to another, and of the judicial to the third, but it has specifically defined the general powers and duties of each of those departments. ”

“ Where the will of the legislature, declared in its statutes, stands in opposition to that of the people, declared in the Constitution, the courts, designed to be an intermediate body between the people and the legislature, are to keep the latter within the limits assigned to their authority. ”

“ The functions of the legislature are originative, those of the judiciary expository, and those of the President executory. The one gives birth to that which the other expounds and explains, and the third, when understood and explained, carries into effect. To create an office, then, is in its nature a legislative function. And to define and fix the tenure of an office which is in the process of creation, is also in its nature a legislative function. ”

“ It is allowed, on all hands, the Legislature may modify the courts; they may add judges, they may fix the times at which the courts shall sit, &c. Suppose the Legislature to have interests distinct from the people, and the judges to stand in the way of executing any favorite measure—can any thing be more easy than for the Legislature to declare that the courts, instead of being held semi-annually, or oftener, shall be held only once in six, eight, ten, or twenty years? ”

“ That the people, in the solemn compact, which is declared to be the supreme law of the land, have not constituted the state legislatures the judges of the acts or measures of the Federal Government, but have confided to them, the power of proposing such amendments of the Constitution, as shall appear to them necessary to the interests, or conformable to the wishes, of the people whom they represent. ”

“ Article sixth, relative to the elections, qualifications, and proceedings of the legislature, resumed — Motion to unite the judges of the Supreme Court with the President, in his revisory power over acts of the legislature — Disagreed to — Motion to require three fourths, instead of two thirds, to pass bills, negatived by the executive — Agreed to — Motion to extend the negative of the executive to resolves as well as bills — Disagreed to — Motion to allow the executive ten days to revise bills — Agreed to — Article sixth, as amended, agreed to. ”

“ They do not say the judges, simply, but the judges of the supreme and inferior courts shall hold their offices during good behaviour. They say, therefore, to the Legislature, you may judge of the propriety, the utility, the necessity, of organizing these courts; but when established, you have done your duty. Anticipating the course of passion in future times, they say to the Legislature, you shall not disgrace yourselves by exhibiting the indecent spectacle of judges established by one Legislature removed by another. We will save you also from yourselves. ”

“ The Constitution of the United States does not use the term 'statute,' but it does employ the term 'law,' often regarded as an equivalent, to describe an exertion of legislative power. Thus it is declared that a bill presented in either house of Congress, if receiving prescribed favorable consideration, shall 'become a law,' article 1, § 7; that Congress may 'make all laws' necessary and proper for carrying into execution various enumerated powers, article 1, § 8, cl. ”

“ The mechanism of referring to state law is simply one designed to implement that congressional intent and build into the federal statute a self-executing provision to accommodate to changes in state regulation. ”

“ Has any man said that the legislature can deviate from this Constitution? The legislature is to be guided by the Constitution. They cannot travel beyond its bounds. The reverend gentleman says, that, though the representatives are to be elected for two years, they may pass an act prolonging their appointment for twenty years, or for natural life, without any violation of the Constitution. ”

“ The high respect we entertain for the Legislature, our feelings as men for persons, whose situation requires the earliest, as well as the most effectual relief, and our sincere desire to promote, whether officially or otherwise, the just and benevolent views of Congress, so conspicuous on the present at well as on many other occasions, have induced us to reflect, whether we could be justified in acting, under this act, personally in the character of commissioners during the session of a court ”

“ The Judiciary Department is so constructed as to be sufficiently secured against the improper influence of either the Executive or Legislative Departments. The courts were organized and established by the Legislature, and the Executive creates the judges. Being thus organized, the constitution affords the proper checks to secure their honesty and independence in office. It declares they shall not be removed from office during good behavior; nor their salaries diminished during their continuance in office. ”

“ On the contrary, the natural inference is that Congress, in designating the legislature as the agency to deal with the lands, intended such a legislature as would be established by the Constitution of the state. It was to a legislature whose powers were certain to be limited by the organic law, to a legislature as a parliamentary body, acting within its lawful powers, and by parliamentary methods, and not to the collection of individuals who, for the time being, might happen to be members of that body, that the authority over these lands was given by the enabling act. ”

“ And it is further ordained, that all persons now holding any office of honor, profit, or trust, civil or military, under this State (members of the legislature excepted) , shall, within such time, and in such manner as the legislature shall prescribe, take an oath well and truly to obey, execute, and enforce this ordinance, and such act or acts of the legislature as may be passed in pursuance thereof, according to the true intent and meaning of the same ”

“ The Congressional purpose is similarly set out in the House Judiciary Committee's Report: 'The amendment to subsection (n) in fact construes, interprets, and clarifies both subsections (n) and (o) of section 75. ”

“ Unlike the Executive branch and unlike the Congress, the Constitution places the composition and continuity of our federal judiciary entirely within the coordinated exercise of responsibilities of the other two branches of government. ”

“ If it be said that the legislative body are themselves the constitutional judges of their own powers, and that the construction they put up on them is conclusive upon the other departments, it may be answered, but this cannot be the natural presumption, where it is not to be collected from any particular provisions in the constitution. ”