the tedious and costly appeals which have so often amounted to a denial of justice in civil cases and to a failure to protect the public at large in criminal cases." Still more significant is the approval of "such action as may be necessary to simplify the process by which any judge who may be found to be derelict in his duty may be. removed from office."
II
The current tendency to criticize the courts is nothing new. It has existed ever since the foundation of the government. Jefferson denounced the decision of the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison. Jackson vetoed a bill renewing the charter of the United States Bank on the ground that it was unconstitutional, although the Supreme Court had pronounced a similar bill constitutional, and Lincoln strongly dissented from the Dred Scott decision. Moreover, in at least three instances the President has gone so far as openly to disregard an order or a decision of the Supreme Court. Jefferson refused to answer to a subpoena issued by Marshall for his appearance as a witness at the trial of Burr. Jackson's celebrated remark, "John Marshall has rendered his decision, now let him enforce it," will probably never be forgotten. Lincoln ignored the opinion of Chief-Justice Taney that the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus by presidential proclamation was unconstitutional. States have also refused to obey the decisions of the court.
Criticism of the courts is especially rife at present and promises to become still more common. First, the readiness with which injunctions are issued at the behests of employers in controversies between capital and labor irritates the working classes. Blanket restraining orders issued now and then without the parties enjoined having a chance to be heard in court and occasional instances in which peaceful persuasion is placed under the ban stir up bad blood and create the impression that the courts are the-tools of the employing class. Amendment number twenty-two submitted to the voters of Ohio in 1912 contained the following:
No order of injunction shall issue in any controversy involving the employment of labor, except to preserve physical property from injury or destruction; and all persons charged in contempt proceedings with the violation of an injunction issued in such controversies shall, upon demand, be granted a trial by jury as in criminal cases.
This amendment failed to carry. Nevertheless, the large vote which it received indicates much dissatisfaction with the manner in which the courts at present issue injunctions and punish for contempt in labor cases. This amendment received 240,896 votes as compared with 257,302 cast against it, though in limiting the injunction to the preservation of physical property it forbade its use to protect the good-will of a business or the lives of the community from intimidation and acts of violence.
