First came the protest against Marbury and Madison
in the impeachment of Chase, because, as Giles explained, if judges were
to annul laws, the dominant party must have on the bench judges they
could trust. Next the Supreme Court of New York imagined the theory of
the Police Power, which was adopted by the Supreme Court of the United
States in 1837. But it stood to reason that if judges were to suspend
constitutional limitations according to their notions of reasonableness,
the people must have the means of securing judges whose views touching
reasonableness coincided with their own. And behold, within ten years,
by the constitution of 1846, New York adopted an elective judiciary.
Then followed the Dred Scott Case, the Civil War, and the attack on
legislative authority in Hepburn _v_. Griswold. Straightway the Court
received an admonition which it remembered for a generation. Somewhat
forgetful of this, on May 15, 1911, Chief Justice White gave his opinion
in the Standard Oil Case, which followed hard upon a number of state
decisions intended to override legislation upon several burning social
issues.
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