I want us to stay on this specific issue and not wander into general political theory. That should be clear.
Does the general right to defend yourself invalidate every restriction of gun ownership based on criminal behavior or mental capacity? Who claims that?
The specific is the conflict between the state and Fed. marijuana laws.
And I don't want to start a debate on whether X or Y liberty is immutable or a social consensus in this thread.
I'm feeling we are done with the marijuana issue. The Feds trump state medical marijuana. That's that. If you want to start a more general thread, go ahead.
If you have more to say on the specific go ahead or if not, start another thread.
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We come now to a more particular and detailed examination of the question, "Who is the final judge, or interpreter in constitutional controversies?"
Let us now inquire what "constitutional controversies" the federal courts have authority to decide, and how far its decisions are final and conclusive against all the world.
The Constitution provides that "the judicial powers shall extend to all cases in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and the treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more States; between a State and citizens of another State; between citizens of different States; between citizens of the same State, claiming lands under grants of different States; and between a State and the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens or subjects."
The Constitution provides that "the judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens and subjects of any foreign State."
It will be conceded on all hands that the federal courts have no jurisdiction except what is here conferred. The judiciary, as a part of the Federal Government, derives its powers only from the Constitution which creates that government. The term "cases" implies that the subject matter shall be proper for judicial decision; and the parties between whom alone jurisdiction can be entertained, are specifically enumerated. Beyond these "cases" and these parties they have no jurisdiction.
There is no part of the Constitution in which the framers of it have displayed a more jealous care of the rights of the States, than in the limitations of the judicial power. It is remarkable that no power is conferred except what is absolutely necessary to carry into effect the general design, and accomplish the general object of the States, as independent States. The federal tribunals cannot take cognizance of any case whatever in which all the States have not an equal and common interest that a just and impartial decision shall be had. A brief analysis of the provisions of the Constitution will make this sufficiently clear.
Cases of these kinds are simply the carrying out of the compact or agreement made between the States, by the Constitution itself, and, of course, all the States are alike interested in them. For this reason alone, if there were no other, they ought to be entrusted to the common tribunals of all the States. There is another reason, however, equally conclusive. The judicial should always be at least co-extensive with the legislative power; for it would be a strange anomaly, and could produce nothing but disorder and confusion, to confer on a government the power to make a law, without conferring at the same time the right to interpret and the power to enforce it.
This brief review of the judicial power of the United States, as given in the Constitution, is not offered as a full analysis of the subject; for the question before us does not render any such analysis necessary. By design has been only to show with what extreme reserve judicial power has been conferred, and with what caution it has been restricted to those cases, only, which the new relation between the States established by the Constitution rendered absolutely necessary. In all the cases above supposed, the jurisdiction of the federal courts is clear and undoubted; and as the States have, in the frame of the Constitution, agreed to submit to the exercise of this jurisdiction, they are bound to do so, and to compel their people to like submission. But it is to be remarked, that they are bound only by their agreement, and not beyond it. They are under no obligation to submit to the decisions of the Supreme Court, on subject matter not properly cognizable before it, nor to those between parties not responsible to its jurisdiction.
