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Show Tha SUPREME . COURT ' AND HOW la IT WORKS 1 l Difficult Decisions By ROBERT MERRILL VIRTUALLY all cases brought before a court for decision represent strong differences of opinion. This it also true of cases which come before the Supreme court of the United States partlcluarly those In which a citizen differs with congressional opinion on the grave question of whether or not his constitutional con-stitutional rights have been violated by a congressional act. And, since the members of the Supreme court are not supermen but simply citizens trained in the law. they too differ on occasion. More frequently, however, than many persons realize, they are unanimous In their decisions. 16 Unanimous Decisions. On January 4. of the present year, for example, the Supreme court handed down 16 decisions. All were unanimous. On February 1, it handed down 24 decisions. Of these, 23 were unanimous. In cases where private citizens differ with congress on the constitutionality constitu-tionality of a law, and the Supreme court is asked to act as umpire, the chances for unanimity of opinion among the Justices are, of course, smaller. Students of government have recently re-cently computed (as this Is written) that, during its century and a half of history, the Supreme court declared laws unconstitutional in approximately approxi-mately 73 such cases. In thirty of those cases the Justices reached unanimous decisions. In 23 of them there were either one or two dissenting dis-senting votes. i Contrary, perhaps, to general opinion, the much-discussed 6-4 decisions were rarer. They occurred in about a dozen of those opinions. Other decisions have run 6-3, 5-3, etc., varying, sometimes, according to the number of Justices on the court Deny Powers to Court. Many of the unanimous decisions finding congressional acts unconstitutional unconsti-tutional involved rights of citizens as well as fundamental principles of American government Several of them declared unconstitutional unconsti-tutional certain powers which legislation legis-lation would have conferred upon the court itself. Others upheld the right of trial by Jury, the right of a citizen to refuse to testify against himself, the right to Just compensation for property taken for public purposes, and the like. One declared that even an alien in United States territory cannot be denied the right to indictment and trial by Jury when charged with a criminal offense. Even when the. decisions were unanimous, however, the court under un-der its own rulings, could not suggest sug-gest legislation. It could only say that the legislation as enacted did not conform with the Constitution and, in the case of the citizen who made the particular appeal, interfered inter-fered with constitutional guarantees. Court Can't Overrule Congress. This point was recently expressed in one opinion of the court which read in part as follows: "It is sometimes said that the court assumes a power to overrule or control the action of the people's representatives. This is a misconception. miscon-ception. "The Constitution Is the supreme law of the land ordained and established es-tablished by the people. All legislation legisla-tion must conform to the principles it lsys down. When an act ot congress con-gress is appropriately challenged in the courts as not conforming to the Constitutional mandate, the Judicial branch of the Government has only one duty to lay the Article of the Constitution which is invoked beside the statute which is challenged and to decide whether the latter squares with the former. "All the court does or can do, is to announce its considered judgment judg-ment upon the question. The only power it has, if such it may be called, is the power of Judgment "This court neither approves nor condemns any legislative policy. Its delicate and difficult office is to ascertain as-certain and declare whether the legislation is in accordance with, or In contravention of, the provisions of the Constitution; and, having done that its duty ends." C Western Newspaper Union. |