Acme, Inc. v. Besson

10 F. Supp. 1, 1935 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1621
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedMarch 12, 1935
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 10 F. Supp. 1 (Acme, Inc. v. Besson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Acme, Inc. v. Besson, 10 F. Supp. 1, 1935 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1621 (D.N.J. 1935).

Opinion

FAKE, District Judge.

The major issue involved in this suit bears upon the constitutionality of the “National Industrial Recovery Act” approved June 16, 1933 (48 Stat. 195). The cause had been fully presented, oral arguments heard, and briefs submitted, and we were engaged in drafting an opinion in which we were analyzing the cases bearing upon the constitutional limitations placed upon the Congress in attempting to regulate the incidents to manufacture, carried on, of course, wholly within the state. In this posture, Judge Nields, a District Judge in this circuit, handed down his opinion in the case of United States v. Weirton Steel Company, 10 F. Supp. 55 (February 27, 1935), in which the problems within the scope of our inquiry here have been painstakingly and fearlessly considered. His labors in that case have greatly simplified our work and made it unnecessary to hand down our practically completed opinion. Indeed, to do so would be to unnecessarily encumber the reports with repetitious matter.

Whenever an issue is raised as to the constitutionality of an act of Congress, the trial court is called upon 'to exercise a tremendous power; a power peculiar to our system of government. Whether the conclusions of the court be in the negative or in the affirmative, forces are at once put in motion which may have a far-reaching and all-important effect upon the maintenance of constitutional government. Such power must of necessity exert a sobering influence upon the mind and conscience of the court. It may be well, therefore, in passing, to examine into the nature of the things which must prompt judicial action.

At the outset, it may not be amiss to consider the language of the oath to which the federal jurist subscribes. It requires that he shall “administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich * * * agreeably to the Constitution and Laws of the United States.” It was just such an oath of office as bound Chief Justice Marshall when in Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch, 137, at page 177, 2 L. Ed. 60, he said: “Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution is void.” The law thus stated is so well founded in logic and so generally understood and accepted in judicial circles that it needs no emphasis here.

Again it may be of value to review briefly the thought of some of the illustrious scholars and statesmen who have written and spoken on the subject.

After a critical examination of our institutions, including a careful analysis of the constitutional limitations of our courts, the learned De Tocqueville said on the subject: “Within these limits, the power vested in American Courts of Justice of pronouncing a statute to be unconstitutional, forms one of the most powerful barriers which have ever been devised against the tyranny of political assemblies.”

During the Lincoln-Douglas debates, this power of the United States Supreme Court was dealt with by both parties. Mr. Lincoln said: “We think its decisions on constitutional questions, when fully settled, should control not only the particular cases decided, but the general policy of the country, subject to be disturbed only by amendments to the constitution as provided in that instrument itself. More than this would be revolution.”

Senator Douglas had this to say: “The courts are the tribunals prescribed by the constitution and created by the authority of the people to determine, expound, and enforce the law. Hence, whoever resists the final decision of the highest judicial tribunal aims a deadly blow at our whole republican system of government — a blow *3 which, if successful, would place all our rights and liberties at the mercy of passion, anarchy, and violence.”

The great British Ambassador, lion. James Bryce, in his work, “The American Commonwealth,” refers to this power of the courts in the following words: “It is nevertheless true that there is no part of the American system which reflects more credit on its authors or has worked better in practice. It has had the advantage of relegating questions not only intricate and delicate, but peculiarly liable to excite political passions, to the cool, dry atmosphere of judicial determination.” And further: “By leaving constitutional questions to be settled by the courts of law another advantage was incidently secured. The court does not go to meet the question; it waits for the question to come to it. When the court acts, it acts at the instance of a party. Sometimes the plaintiff or the defendant may be the National government, or a State government, but far more frequently both are private persons, seeking to enforce or defend their private rights.” Again, to quote the same author: “The Supreme Court is the living voice of the Constitution — that is, of the will of the people expressed in the fundamental law they have enacted. It is, therefore, as some one has said, the conscience of the people, who have resolved to restrain themselves from hasty or unjust action by placing their representatives under the restriction of a permanent law. It is the guarantee of the minority, who, when threatened by the impatient vehemence of a majority, can appeal to this permanent law, finding the interpreter and enforcer thereof in a court set high above the assaults of faction.”

Mr. Woodrow Wilson, in his book entitled “Constitutional Government in the United States,” had the following to say: “Our courts are the balance-wheel of our whole constitutional system; and ours is the only constitutional system so balanced and controlled. Other constitutional systems lack complete poise and certainty of operation because they lack the support and interpretation of authoritative, undisputable courts of law. It is clear beyond all need of exposition that for the definite maintenance of constitutional understandings it is indispensable, alike for the preservation of the liberty of the individual and for the preservation of the integrity of the powers of the government, that there should be some non-political forum in which those understandings can be impartially debated and determined. That forum our courts supply. There the individual may assert his rights; there the government must accept definition of its authority. There the individual may challenge the legality of governmental action and have it judged by the test of fundamental principles, and that test the government must abide; there the government can check the too aggressive self-assertion of the individual and establish its power upon lines which all can comprehend and heed. The constitutional powers of the courts constitute the ultimate safeguard alike of individual privilege and of governmental prerogative. It is in this sense that our judiciary is the balance-wheel of our entire system; it is meant to maintain that nice adjustment between individual rights and governmental powers which constitutes political liberty.”

While this power of the courts has been debated from time to time, never in our history has it been successfully attacked. So much then for the nature and the propriety of the exercise of the power of the courts to interpret and enforce the Constitution.

Seldom, however, is the trial court left entirely alone with the Constitution and the statute before it.

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10 F. Supp. 1, 1935 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1621, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/acme-inc-v-besson-njd-1935.