The Development and Evaluation of Judicial Review [Part 2]

In the previous portion of this article, Mr. Patterson attributed the American Revolution to the tyrannies resulting from the failure of the British government to provide for judicial review of acts of the central government as well as of the acts of the local governments. After noting a resulting desire among the former colonists to substitute constitutional supremacy for legislative supremacy, Mr. Patterson observed the use of judicial review in the courts of several of the states prior to the Convention of 1787, pointed out the embodiment of its principles in the enactments of the Congress of the Confederation in 1787, and quoted from the journals of the Convention to show that the theory of judicial review was accepted by the framers of the Constitution. He now carries his theme into an appraisal of the Constitution, illustrates how the principles of judicial review were reaffirmed in the ratification of the Constitution, and elaborates upon its significance