Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/132

 The Supreme Court of Minnesota.

THE SUPREME COURT OF MINNESOTA. By Hon. Charles B. Elliott, of Minneapolis. I. THE history of the highest court of a stitute it. " One judge of high moral per State is not the least important part ceptions and a tender and instructed con of the history of the Commonwealth. Al science will see clearly the requirements of though the least showy, the judiciary is by natural right in the case, or the correct ap far the most efficient instrument in forming plication of written law or judicial precedents. and developing the characteristics which dis Another judge, unscrupulous, passionate, un tinguish the people of one community from learned, or vindictive, may utterly fail either those of another. To write a true and com to perceive or apply the right." plete history of the Supreme Court of a The body of the law now in force in this State would require a minute study and an country is the work of the judges. Mans alysis of its decisions affecting private as well i field, before the days of legislative fecundity, as public rights. These decisions become created the commercial law of Great Britain; the measure of business morality, and thus Marshall created a system of constitutional powerfully influence and direct the every-day law very different from that contemplated life and habits of the people. The court is by the constitutional convention which con the balance-wheel of the political system; structed his text, or the successive congresses its steady wisdom operates as a break upon which sought to embody their ideas in stat the hurried action of the people and their utes. It is hardly too much to say that a legislative representatives while acting under great judge creates the laws which in theory the pressure of public excitement. he declares. In a contest between such a I do not propose here to attempt such a judge and the legislative power, his decisions minute study of the history of the court, as will percolate through and ultimately under there is another view from which the subject mine any legal structure the legislature may create. may be approached which is scarcely less im Minnesota is as yet a new State, and its portant. The personal element enters largely into the history of jurisprudence. The flow Supreme Court of Judicatureis without tradi of law must be through a personal medium, tions. No ancient portraits of famous judges and during its passage the law of refraction in wig and gown look down upon their succes sors. Portraits indeed hang upon the walls is liable to influence the result. The legis lature may, in the plenitude of its wisdom of the court-room, but they are of men who have recently passed away, or of those whose and power, enact a statute for a certain pur pose; but whether in fact such statute will voices are still heard before the court. The ever become the law of the land may depend history of the State is encompassed by the life of a single generation, and the founders upon the mental peculiarities of the mem bers of the court which is called upon to of the commonwealth are still with us in the flesh. One member of the territorial court construe and apply it to the multifarious cir cumstances of life. There are few statutes is a leader of the bar to-day, while another which a court may not construe into a is a distinguished Federal judge. Minnesota has had no judicial monarch, no nullity. So every court has its peculiar ities, which are but the reflections of the monarchy of a single mind to interrupt the republic of judges. The average member personal characteristics of the men who con