Thursday, September 16, 2010

A Smidgen of Forgotten Wisdom

The following observation about the Constitution that makes the United States exceptional is from a 1926 dissenting opinion by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis:  

The doctrine of the separation of powers was adopted by the Convention of 1787  not to promote efficiency but to preclude the exercise of arbitrary power.  The purpose was, not to avoid friction, but, by means of the inevitable friction incident to the distribution of governmental powers among three departments, to save the people from autocracy.

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