Supreme law

“ There are, also, prohibitions on the States. Some authority must, therefore, necessarily exist, having the ultimate jurisdiction to fix and ascertain the interpretation of these grants, restrictions, and prohibitions. The Constitution has itself pointed out, ordained, and established that authority. How has it accomplished this great and essential end? By declaring, Sir, that "the Constitution, and the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, shall be the supreme law of the land, any thing in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." ”

“ If the will of a majority of Congress is to be the supreme law of the land, it is clear the Constitution is a dead letter, and has utterly failed of the very object for which it was designed—the protection of the rights of the minority. ”

“ But, as discussion in the Convention proceeded, three principles obtained clearer and clearer recognition, if not from all its members, certainly from the great majority of them: first, that the Constitution is law, in the sense of being enforcible by courts; secondly, that it is supreme law, with which ordinary legislation must be in harmony to be valid ”

“ My position is, sir, that, in this country, the supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power resides in the people at large; that they have vested certain proportions of this power in the state governments; but that the fee-simple continues, resides, and remains, with the body of the people. Under the practical influence of this great truth, we are now sitting and deliberating, and under its operation, we can sit as calmly and deliberate as coolly, in order to change a constitution, as a legislature can sit and deliberate under the power of a constitution, in order to alter or amend a law. ”

“ The people of any state cannot, then, by any alteration of their state constitution, destroy, or impair that supremacy. How, then, can they do it in any other less direct manner? Now, it is the proper function of the judicial department to interpret laws, and by the very terms of the constitution to interpret the supreme law. Its interpretation, then, becomes obligatory and conclusive upon all the departments of the federal government, and upon the whole people, so far as their rights and duties are derived from, or affected by that constitution. ”

“ Congress need our supplications, they shall have them. The President and his Cabinet need our prayers, they shall possess them. The Supreme Court, that awful emblem of impartial justice, need our intercessions, it shall not be forgotten.
Upon all these departments of law, authority and power, we shall beseech the God of Nations to send the spirit of wisdom, justice, liberty—of wisdom seeing the end from the beginning—of justice incorruptible—of liberty governed by righteous law. ”

“ Every law is a command, not only, but the command of a supreme authority; and it would be a singular contradiction in terms to speak of this supreme power as limited by law. How can the supreme author of law within a state himself be subject to law: how can the creature bind the creator? How can one refrain from smiling at the logical incapacity of those who speak of limitations to sovereignty, or, more absurdly still, of divisions of sovereignty?65 Is there a hierarchy of supremacies: can there be a co-ordination of creators? ”

“ In laws, we are obliged to act without ourselves determining, or promising any thing at all." [41] It is a rule prescribed; that is, it is laid down, promulgated, and established. It is prescribed by the supreme power in a state, that is, among us, by the people, or a majority of them in their original sovereign capacity. Like the ordinary municipal laws, it may be founded upon our consent, or that of our representatives; but it derives its ultimate obligatory force, as a law, and not as a compact. ”

“ All arguments alike, whether for or against the Eighteenth Amendment, have wholly ignored the fact that the citizens of America, for the protection of the individual liberty of the one American people, IN THAT CHARACTER, established the Constitution and made it the supreme law over the citizens of the respective states and the states themselves and the state governments and the league of the states, which the citizens of America continued as subordinate to their nation of men. ”

“ If an issue arises under an act of Congress, there must ever be the fundamental question of authority for the act. This question of authority once settled, the act, by the terms of the Constitution itself, is a part of the supreme law.34 Rarely is an act of Congress declared unconstitutional. ”

“ The national will is the supreme law of the Republic, and on all subjects within the limits of his constitutional powers should be faithfully obeyed by the public servant. ”

“ In short, the law must be a power. The Conception of Law, which we obtained from the last part of our investigation, and the conception of a supreme power, which we had obtained previously, must be synthetically united. The law itself must be the supreme power, and the supreme power must be the law. ”

“ And whereas the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, cannot be displaced within this territory, but must ever continue the supreme law thereof, notwithstanding the doings of any pretended Governments, acting singly or in confederation, hostile to its supremacy: Therefore,—
1. ”

“ Whenever, in pursuance of an honest and actual antagonistic assertion of rights by one individual against another there is presented a question involving the validity of any act of any Legislature, State or federal, and the decision necessarily rests on the competency of the Legislature to so enact, the court must, in the exercise of its solemn duties, determine whether the act is constitutional or not; but such an exercise of power is the ultimate and supreme function of courts. ”

“ The fundamentals of government are a unit, like government itself, and he who rests his case on one fundamental right really rests his case on all. The principle which permeates and includes all these fundamentals—usually set forth in Bills of Rights—is thus expressed by the Supreme Court:
When we consider the nature and the theory of our institutions of government, the principles upon which they are supposed to rest, and review the history of their development, we are constrained to conclude that they211 do not mean to leave room for the play and action of purely personal and arbitrary power. ”

“ Courts of law simply do not render “judgments” that toggle statutes from “operative” to “inoperative” and back again, as if judicial review were some sort of in rem jurisdiction over legislative Acts. ”

“ Is the duty of honest services limited “to public officials” serving the government? Ibid. Does it also apply “to private individuals who contract with the public?” Ibid. Or does it apply to “everyone” who owes some sort of fiduciary responsibility to others, including (say) a corporate officer? Ibid. What source of law, too, should a court consult to answer these questions? ”

“ Only the former sort of legislation, which imposes obligations on regulated parties with the force of law, directly secures by law the rights corresponding to those obligations. By contrast, an exercise of Congress’ spending power, whether it comes from the so-called Spending Clause or elsewhere in the Constitution, is no more than a disposition of funds. As such, a conditional exercise of the spending power is nothing more than a contractual offer ”

“ Rescinding an individual right in its entirety and conferring it on the State, an action the Court takes today for the first time in history, affects all who have relied on our constitutional system of government and its structure of individual liberties protected from state oversight. Roe and Casey have of course aroused controversy and provoked disagreement. But the right those decisions conferred and reaffirmed is part of society's understanding of constitutional law and of how the Court has defined the liberty and equality that women are entitled to claim. ”

“ It is this neutrality the Court abandons today when it treats New York's coercive system as a program which merely 'encourages religious instruction or cooperates with religious authorities.' The abandonment is all the more dangerous to liberty because of the Court's legal exaltation of the orthodox and its derogation of unbelievers.
Under our system of religious freedom, people have gone to their religious sanctuaries not because they feared the law but because they loved their God. ”

“ If the validity of every law is to depend upon the mere fact that the judiciary, if they had been legislating, would not have so arranged the law, we think that the Constitutional Convention reposed more confidence in the judicial department than sound discretion would warrant. ”

“ Because the law of notice looks clearly to the protection of private rights, while the law of the validity of judgments until reversed by appellate powers, whilst it also protects private rights, looks emphatically to the effective administration of justice, the sanctity of records, the protection of the ministers of justice that they may fearlessly discharge their duties, the stability of titles, the end of strife and the repose of society. ”

“ If there be such fixed and known rules and they are well founded in public policy, that look to the stability of titles, the stated, peaceful and quiet administration of the laws and to the repose of society in general, they must be considered of paramount obligation, although in their enforcement cases of individual hardship may arise. And this upon the maxim, as old as the common law itself "that a private mischief shall be rather suffered than a public inconvenience." ”

“ Consequently, it cannot be expected, much less required, that legislators enact no law regulating conduct that may in some way result in an economic disadvantage to some religious sects and not to others because of the special practices of the various religions. We do not believe that such an effect is an absolute test for determining whether the legislation violates the freedom of religion protected by the First Amendment. ”

“ Finally and looking to the law, we know that a witness’s bare conclusion is regularly held insufficient to meet the substantial evidence threshold—and we know that the government hasn’t cited a single case finding substantial evidence on so little. ”