Thursday, September 22, 2011

An Unnecessary Appeal to Authority

There is no need to rely on another person's authority in order to prove what is obvious, but here is a quote from James Kent, nevertheless, in which he favors a view that I think is plainly correct:

“The courts of justice have a right, and are in duty bound, to bring every law to the test of the constitution, and to regard the constitution, first of the United States, and then of their own state, as the paramount or supreme law, to which every inferior or derivative power and regulation most conform. The constitution is the act of the people, speaking in their original character, and defining the permanent conditions of the social alliance; and there can be no doubt on the point with us, that every act of the legislative power, contrary to the true intent and meaning of the constitution, is absolutely null and void.”

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