The woke
social justice warriors, continuing in their flailing fit of Maoist cultural
destruction, have recently succeeded in removing the name of Henry
Benning from Ft. Benning in Georgia.
But the good people of Georgia may want to find a way to honor him once
again, for this same Mr. Benning – an honorable, lawyer, judge, and general of
the 19th century – in a ruling he wrote during his time on the
Georgia Supreme Court, explicated a legal principle that could prove invaluable
to the States in their battle with the out-of-control federal government.
In the case
of Padelford
v. Savannah (1854), he proclaimed that principle – that the State
Supreme Courts are not inferior to the federal Supreme Court. He said,
The
Supreme Court of Georgia is co-equal and co-ordinate with the Supreme Court of
the U. S.; and therefore, the latter cannot give the former an order, or make
for it a precedent.
Further on,
he expanded somewhat:
But are not the decisions of the Supreme
Court of the United States to govern this Court, as to the rule of construing
the Constitution? They are not, any more than the decisions of that Court are
to be governed by the decisions of this.
The Supreme Court of the United States has
no jurisdiction over this Court, or over any department of the Government of
Georgia. This Court is not a United States Court; and therefore, neither the
Government of the United States, nor any department of it, can give this Court
an order. It follows, if this be true, that decisions of that Court, are not
precedents for this Court.
To prove his
statements, he provided a lengthy quotation from Alexander Hamilton, in summary
of which he said,
The idea meant to be conveyed here is
clearly this: that the General Government has a sphere in which it is supreme,
and the State Governments a sphere in which they are supreme; that these
spheres intersect each other, and that the space included between the arcs of
intersection, is common to both-is a space in which both are equally supreme,
and in which there is no rule but one-Qui prior est in tempore potior est in
jure.
He
continued:
The same principles have been expressed by
Marshall, Chief Justice, since the adoption of the Constitution. In McCulloch
vs. Maryland, he says, “In America, the powers of sovereignty are divided
between the Government of the Union, and those of the States. They are each
sovereign, with respect to the objects committed to it, and neither sovereign,
with respect to the objects committed to the other”. (4 Wheat. 410.)
Now, if the General Government, by its
Judiciary, can come out of its sphere, into the sphere of a State Government,
and ravish a case thence out of the hands of the State Judiciary, the two
Governments are not equally supreme within their respective spheres. But they
are, by admission of Hamilton and Marshall, equally supreme in their respective
spheres; therefore, the former Government cannot do this, with respect to the
latter. As well might it be said that England could order a case out of France,
from a French into an English Court; or that a State Court could order a case
out of the Supreme Court of the United States into it. None but a superior can
give an order; none but an inferior is bound to obey one.
The question, when tried by the rule of
strict construction, does not admit of a doubt. That rule is, that the General
Government has no powers, except such as have been expressly delegated to it;
and that the delegations of express power are to be strictly construed.
Now, jurisdiction over State Courts is not
expressly given to the General Government, or any department of it.
Therefore, according to this rule, such
jurisdiction is not given at all.
To give yet more
strength to his position, he then showed that the drafters of the Philadelphia
constitution expressly rejected proposals that would have given the federal
government the ability to veto State laws:
. . .
The rest is
at https://thehayride.com/2023/06/garlington-state-supreme-courts-are-co-equal-with-the-federal-supreme-court/.
--
Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us
sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
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