Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Thomas Jefferson, the California Supreme Court, and Proposition 8

Wise words from Thomas Jefferson, which are applicable to the California Supreme Court's agreeing to hear the legal challenges to Proposition 8:

“A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government.”

"To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps.”

“A usurping judiciary will become a despotism.”

More here.

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