Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/240

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example, for it is particularly to the in terest of every special class that it be protected from oppression by raising rather than by lowering the standards of the bench. By whatever means it be

happened to Lord Mansﬁeld, if the passion-mad populace of England had possessed the power of Recall? Another illustration: Chief justice Marshall is rightly esteemed the noblest ﬁgure in Ameri can judicial history. In the year 1808, when the career of John Marshall as the great path ﬁnder of our constitutional law had little more than begun, the people of Baltimore burned him in effigy because of his decision in a notable case, which, though sound in law, was offensive to public opinion, and was especially obnoxious to President Jefferson and his adherents. What would have become of John Marshall. had the dominant democracy of that hour possessed the power of Recall?

attempted, whether by paying inade quate salaries, by limiting tenure of oﬂice, or by making the judicial ofﬁce

Whether Arizona's adoption of the recall should be a bar to its admission to statehood is a matter regarding which

completely the bauble of popular caprice, the lowering of the standards of our judiciary needs earnestly to be opposed by every high-minded, law abiding citizen. It seemed to us that a paper out in San Jose, California (the Mercury), put it pretty well the other day, when it

there will be different opinions.

THE RECALL OF JUDGES HE proposition for a popular recall of judges, without impeachment, is so radical and so unreasonable that it is hard to conceive why it should win favor able support in any intelligent quarter. It certainly cannot beneﬁt any particu lar class, like the labor unions, for

said: When Lord Mansﬁeld took his oath of office as Chief Justice of England he knelt before the throne during that portion of the obligation which bound him in loyalty to the King; but when he was to receive that part of his oath which bound him to justly administer the laws of the realm, he rose and stood erect; and his attitude then and judicial acts thereafter have entitled him to immortal eminence as the type of the just and fearless Judge. Yet only a few years later the British populace tore down his house during the Gordon riots because of a deci sion which is now regarded as one of the great milestones of human liberty. What would have

By

some the ground may perhaps be taken that the federal government, in raising a territory to statehood, owes something to a community comparatively without political experience. Others will say that this community should be free to govern itself in whatever way it pleases. That issue, however, does not touch the folly of the recall of judges, which is indisputable, and which must arouse grave doubts of the ability of this new community to frame a constitutional law adapted to the needs of an orderly, well governed society.

A ROLAND FOR AN OLIVER HE Supreme Court of California has reversed itself, ruling that it was guilty of a technical error that