"The judicial power of the United States is" (by the plan of the
convention) "to be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior
courts as the Congress may, from time to time, ordain and establish."[1]
That there ought to be one court of supreme and final jurisdiction, is a
proposition which is not likely to be contested. The reasons for it have
been assigned in another place, and are too obvious to need repetition.
The only question that seems to have been raised concerning it, is,
whether it ought to be a distinct body or a branch of the legislature.
The same contradiction is observable in regard to this matter which has
been remarked in several other cases. The very men who object to the
Senate as a court of impeachments, on the ground of an improper
intermixture of powers, advocate, by implication at least, the propriety
of vesting the ultimate decision of all causes, in the whole or in a
part of the legislative body.
The arguments, or rather suggestions, upon which this charge is founded,
are to this effect: "The authority of the proposed Supreme Court of the
United States, which is to be a separate and independent body, will be
superior to that of the legislature.
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