Thomas Jefferson was alarmed during his day of the threat of judicial tyranny. He feared that it could turn the Constitution into “a thing of wax” that could be “twisted into any form” (Letter to Judge Spencer Roane, Nov. 1819). Unlike congressmen and presidents, Jefferson noted, federal judges are “more dangerous [to liberty] as they are in office for life” (Letter to a Mr. Jarvis, Sept. 1820). The federal judiciary, said Jefferson, was “the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working underground to undermine our Constitution . . .” (Letter to Thomas Ritchie, Sept. 1820).

Jefferson reminded anyone who inquired that the Constitution does not give the judiciary the sole right to interpret the Constitution. The executive and congressional branches, “in their own spheres,” have equal rights, he said. As president, Jefferson freed everyone imprisoned by the Adams administration’s Sedition Act which made free political speech illegal. “I discharged every person under punishment or prosecution under the Sedition Law,” he said, “because I considered . . . that law to be a nullity.” The “supreme” court “Judges, believing the law constitutional, had a right to pass a sentence of fine and imprisonment, because the power was placed in their hands . . . . But the executive, believing the law to be unconstitutional, was bound to remit the execution of it” (The Political Writings of Thomas Jefferson, p. 154).

“The judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government” (Letter to A. Coray, Oct. 31, 1823). Experience has shown, however, that “they were to become the most dangerous,” especially because impeachment was so scarce.

Thomas DiLorenzo