Legislation by the Courts

It is remarkable that in this second century of the republic our courts should be so vehemently assailed for interference in legislation. One who knew of our duplex governments only by study of their written constitutions would open his eyes when told that there is any such thing under them as legislation by the courts. The citizen of Nebraska lives under a constitution which devotes an entire article to declaring, not only that the executive, legislative, and judicial departments of its state government are and must be kept distinct, but that no person in anyone of them, except as specially authorized, shall exercise powers properly belonging to another department. The federal constitution does not go quite so far. It merely provides that "all legislative power" shall be vested in Congress, "the executive power" in a President, and "the judicial power" in one supreme court and such inferior ones as Congress shall provide, each in a separate article of that venerated instrument.