54 PART ONE THE CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK CHAPTER 3*LIMITED GOVERNMENT:PRESERVING LIBERTY 55 Whether by oversight or by design,the Framers did not specifically entrust this ANALYZF TH155下 power to a particular branch of govemment,although they did charge the LIMITS ON GOVERNMENT IN THE U.S.CONSTITUTION Supreme Court with deciding on "all cases arising under this Constitution." Limited Government as a Contributor to Judicial Power INTERPRETING THE CONSTITUTION Alexis de Toogueville noted Grants of power:powers granted to the national govern- Bill of Righls:the first ten amendments to the Constitu- Many delegates to the Philadelphia convention apparently assumed that the 10e9ehetaan ment by the Constitution.Powers not granted it are tion,which specify rights of citizens that the national denied it unless they are necessary and proper to the government must respect. Supreme Court would guard against unlawful uses of political power.The most carrying out of granted powers. Federalism:The division of political authority between cogent argument for judicial oversight came from Alexander Hamilton.In not resolved,soaner or Iater, into a judicial question." Demials of por:powers expressly denied to the national the national goverment and the states,enabling the Federalist No.78 he argued that there was no reason to fear judicial scrutiny and Though Tocque知e生 and state govemments by the Constitution. 2po7ceaeandehntrgwand every reason to favor it.The Court,he wrote,was "beyond comparison the observation is an Separated institrdions sharing power:the division of the e not respected by the other authority. weakest of the three departments of power,"since Congress has fiscal power in U.S. national govemment's power among three branches, and the president has military authority,while the Court possesses "merely each of which is to act as a check on the powers of the judgment."This judgment could be used to keep the other branches within other two. constitutional bounds.Limits on government,Hamilton said,can be preserved disputes than other people in practice through the courts,whose duty it is to declare void all acts contrary da.To what degree do you to the Constituton think this tendency is a result Hamilton's position,however,was only an opinion.Not only did the of the concept of limited mt.which is These considerations did not allay the fears of leading Americans who Constitution fail to authorize judicial oversight explicitly,but other nations believed that no possible safeguard against arbitrary government should be offered no clear precedent for it.The English courts had the authority to consttutional structure?Does omitted"A bill of rights,"Jefferson argued,"s what the people are entitled to interpret acts of Parliament but not to declare them invalid on constitutional the tendency give the courts against every government on earth,general or particular,and what no just grounds.Not surprisingly,during the nation's first years some Americans too much power,espedially in view of the fact that judges government should refuse or rest on inference."Jefferson had included a bill of believed that the Supreme Court should not be entrusted with final guardian- rights in the constitution he wrote for Virginia at the outbreak of the Revolution- ship of the Constitution's meaning.Thomas Jefferson contended that each ary War,and all but four states had followed Virginia's example. branch and level of government had the right to decide the meaning of the Opposition to the absence of a bill of rights in the federal constitution led the Constitution for itself.In Jefferson's view,each body was obligated to act within Federalists finally to support its addition.Madison himself introduced a series its constitutional powers but could not be told by another institution what its of amendments during the First Congress,which approved twelve of those lawful powers were.Jefferson promoted this belief in 1799 in the famous proposed.Ten of these amendments were subsequently ratified by the states." These amendments,traditionally called the Bill of Rights,took effect in 1791; they include such rights as free expression,property ownership,and due Cilbert Stuart,Portrait process for persons accused of crimes.(These rights,termed "civil liberties,"are President [omes Madison. the subject of Chapter 5.) Madison is often called "the father of the Constitution" The Bill of Rights is a precise expression of the concept of limited government. because he was instrum ental in Constitutional safeguards of individual rights rest upon a distinction between lawful and unlawful actions of government.In consenting to be governed,the to the people agree to accept the authority of government in certain areas but not in others,including the area of individual rights.The people's-constitutional rights College Museum of Art, Brunswick,Maine) cannot lawfully be denied by governing officials. The Judiciary as Guardian of Limited Government The Framers both empowered and limited government through the Constitu During the Watergate crisis of the tion.But who was to decide whether the government was operating within its mid-1970s,the A constitutional powers?Who was to be the official guardian of limited govern- of checks and bala ment?The Constitution itself makes no direct mention of such authority. dramatically,as Cangress acted to curb the excesses of the Nicon 7.oodBac/