1. United States
2. Letter

Lincoln understood that the Constitution is not self-executing. Its meaning emerges through struggle among competing interpreters, each with legitimate claims to constitutional authority. The Supreme Court plays an important role in that struggle, but not the only role, and not an unlimited one. “The candid citizen must confess,” Lincoln said, “that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers.” We have reached that point. The constitutional tradition of departmentalism provides the theoretical foundation. The precedent of Lincoln provides the historical model. The corruption of the current Court provides the justification.