Outside of the Constitution we have no legal authority more than private citizens, and within it we have only so much as that instrument gives us. This broad principle limits all our functions and applies to all subjects.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
There is only one rule of law in our country, which provides rights and security for every citizen.
We have one authority and one law and everyone has the responsibility to follow that law and that authority.
There are checks and balances and broad separation of powers under the Constitution. Each organ of the State, i.e. the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, must have respect for the others and not encroach into each other's domain.
IT may be proper to observe further, that this Duty is not confined to those who live under any one particular Form of Government: It extends to the Subjects of all regular States, lawfully established.
The constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it. It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. This is the very essence of judicial duty.
We are a nation of laws, and we will always act within the bounds of the law.
In America, we have long stood by the principle that the protections of the law are not meant just for some.
If we are to fulfill the promise of this great Nation that everybody in our society has equal access to the law, obviously having the resources to have access to the law is extremely important.
There is a higher law than the Constitution.
But there is a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes.