penalty. The opinion of the Court, written by Chief Justice Taft, is an
emphatic assertion of the duty and function of the Court to preserve the
constitutional equilibrium between nation and states.]




VII

STATE RIGHTS AND THE SUPREME COURT


A century ago the United States Supreme Court was the bulwark of
national power against the assaults and pretensions of the states.
To-day it is the defender of the states against the encroachments of
national power. Let no one suppose, however, that this is because the
Court itself has faced about. On our revolving planet a ship may be
sailing toward the sun at sunrise and away from the sun in the afternoon
without having changed its course. The Supreme Court has been the most
consistent factor in our governmental scheme. While there have been
differences of viewpoint between liberal constructionists and strict
constructionists among its members, the Court on the whole has steered a
fairly straight course. What has really altered is the environment in
which the Court moves. The earth has been turning on its axis. The frame
of mind of the people who compose states and nation has changed.

At the outset (to cling for a moment to our nautical metaphor) the Court
was obliged to put forth on an unknown sea. Its sailing orders under the
new Constitution were unique. Precedents, those charts and lighthouses
of the judicial mariner, were lacking. Progress was tentative and