Month: May 2009
-
Federalist Nos. 78 – 79
I had always been taught that the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches were fundamentally equal in power within the federal government (checks and balances etc.) but Federalist No. 78 says otherwise: the judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power. I wonder if my understanding is a byproduct of the power…
-
Judicial Appointment
Yesterday I wrote about the president’s power to nominate people for important positions in government. Today we get the news that Justice David Souter will be retiring. (This is doubly convenient as the remaining federalist papers deal with the judicial branch of our government.) I don’t intend to speculate on who the president will nominate…