244. The Federal Marshal. The federal marshal is the sheriff of the court. He executes the court's writs, orders, and judgments. He may call citizens near by (the posse comitatus) to his aid, and if that is not sufficient he may apply to the government at Washington for troops. If the President refuses the necessary force, the court is powerless to execute its de crees. 245. The District Attorney. - The United States district attorney is the federal prosecutor. He begins proceedings against persons violating national law. The district attorney and the marshal are both under the direction of the AttorneyGeneral of the United States, the head of the Department of Justice. Through these officers national authority covers the whole territory of the union. 246. The Judicial Power to declare an Act Unconstitutional. From a political point of view the most important power of the Judiciary is its power to declare an act unconstitutional. This power applies not only to the acts of Congress, but to the acts of any of the state legislatures. An act of a legislature that is unconstitutional is no law at all; it is as if it had never been, and no one can be punished for refusing to obey it. This power of declaring an act unconstitutional is not conferred by the Constitution, and when it was first exercised it caused some surprise and alarm. Jefferson and the states' rights party were afraid the Supreme Court would become too powerful if it were allowed in this way to overrule Congress and the state legislatures. Jefferson admitted that unconstitutional laws did not bind the people, but he did not like to have a national court decide on the limits of national authority. He said that each state should decide when the Constitution had been violated and what should be done about it; or the people of the union in convention assembled should pass on the matter. Now, however, the Supreme Court has been accepted by all as a fair umpire to settle the limits of power between the state and the nation. The power to declare an act unconstitutional is not exercised by the courts of other countries; it is distinctly American. In The Supreme Court can declare an act null and void. An English court cannot. tution is England there is no such thing as an invalid act of Parliament. Parliament is supreme, and no court would presume to set one of its acts aside. Whatever law Parliament passes is constitutional, and the courts will accept and apply it. If an English judge finds two laws conflicting, he merely looks at the date of each, and the last law prevails. All statutes are of equal authority. There is no written constitution to which, Our Consti- as a higher fundamental law, all statutes, or acts of written. the legislature, must conform. But in America the Constitution is written. It is not on the level of an ordinary legislative act, and it cannot be changed at the will of the legislature; but it is a supreme and fundamental law, and all departments of the government must obey it and conform their acts to it. An act of Congress contrary to the Constitution is not law; it is null and void. This theory is attached to a written constitution, and is one of the fundamental principles of our society. The court is in duty bound to set aside an act of Congress that is contrary to the Constitution. This does not mean that the Judicial Department is superior to the Legislative Department, but only that the fundamental law which the people have established is superior to both. The conflict is between two kinds of law, and the court must say what the law is and decide every case in harmony with the supreme law of the land. 247. Four Kinds of American Law. law in America: 1. The federal constitution. 2. Federal statutes. 3. State constitutions. 4. State statutes. There are four kinds of If two laws conflict, the higher law prevails and the lower must give way. The court in interpreting the Constitution merely shows what the higher law requires and wherein the lower law is contrary to it. The Supreme Court will not express an opinion about a proposed law or advise the Executive about the constitutionality of a law. It waits for a law case to come before it, and then passes judgment on any law that may be brought into question. Thus the court does not go to meet a case, but waits for the case to come to it. 248. The Constitution has grown by Amendments, Interpretation, and Construction. It was expected that our Constitution would grow chiefly by amendments, to be made in two ways:1. Congress may by a two-thirds vote of each house propose an amendment. If this be ratified by the legislatures, or conventions, of three fourths of the states, it becomes a part of the Constitution. Fifteen amendments have been obtained in this way. 2. The other method of amendment is that Congress, upon the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, these proposals to be valid when ratified by the legislatures, or conventions, of three fourths of the states. No amendment has ever been obtained by this method. JOHN MARSHALL. "The greatest American jurist" was born in Virginia in 1755 and died in Philadelphia in 1835. He was an educated man, but not a college graduate. He became a lawyer, was made Secretary of State, and finally Chief Justice in 1801. He held this office until the time of his death. He wrote a "History of the Colonies" and a "Life of Washington." The Constitution has also grown by interpretation and construction. John Marshall, the great Chief Justice from 1801 to 1835, did much to establish and enlarge the powers of the national government by his great decisions and by the principles of construction which he laid down. He said that the powers of the national govern ment were limited, and these limits must not be passed; but when once the grant of power is proved, then any reasonable means may be used by Congress to carry out this power. Marshall would have the nation exercise only constitutional powers, but he would have it exercise liberal construction in the use of these powers. The system of courts and the construction of the Constitution which Marshall did so much to establish have had great influence in saving the Constitution from the same complete and disheartening failure into which the Articles of The Court is held Confederation had fallen. Probably no institution in our history has done more to promote and sustain American nationality than has the Supreme Court. It has the respect of all nations, the confidence of all parties. In dignity, ability, and impartial fairness it receives the approval of the people. It is one of the bulwarks of the American system of government. CHAPTER XIX THE STATES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 249. Local Self-government. We have seen in our study of the beginnings of the union how the people were governed almost entirely by the states. Local self-government in the states is still the larger part of our government. In the multitude of affairs that government deals with, the states are still more important than the nation; they touch the citizen a hundred times where the nation touches him once. Most of our laws are made at our state capitals, not at Washing- The importon. Treason, piracy, counterfeiting, smuggling, tance of the offenses against the postal laws and land laws and internal revenue laws, violations of patents and copyrights, and interfering with interstate commerce, - these are almost all the crimes that can be committed against the United States govern ment. states. On the other hand, the state touches the citizen in so many ways that they are too numerous to mention. It collects his personal and property tax, registers his birth and his The citizen death, appoints his guardian, provides for his inheri- is governed more by the tance, pays for his schooling, regulates his marriage, state than grants him divorce, declares him a bankrupt, licenses by the his trade, makes him pay his debts, tries him for all national law. kinds of civil and criminal misconduct. The state laws preserve the peace; regulate the police; provide for the poor; control water, gas, and railway franchises; establish insane asylums, blind asylums, reform schools, and penitentiaries; take care of the highways; guard the public health; and protect the citizen against fraud, nuisance, riot, theft, burglary, gambling, robbery, slander, incendiarism, violence, and murder. With all these |