I admit, however, that the Constitution ought to
be the standard of construction for the laws, and that wherever there is
an evident opposition, the laws ought to give place to the Constitution.
But this doctrine is not deducible from any circumstance peculiar to the
plan of the convention, but from the general theory of a limited
Constitution; and as far as it is true, is equally applicable to most,
if not to all the State governments. There can be no objection,
therefore, on this account, to the federal judicature which will not lie
against the local judicatures in general, and which will not serve to
condemn every constitution that attempts to set bounds to legislative
discretion.
But perhaps the force of the objection may be thought to consist in the
particular organization of the Supreme Court; in its being composed of a
distinct body of magistrates, instead of being one of the branches of
the legislature, as in the government of Great Britain and that of the
State. To insist upon this point, the authors of the objection must
renounce the meaning they have labored to annex to the celebrated maxim,
requiring a separation of the departments of power.
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