are so secured with the least show of force. It is not too much
to say that this result has been worked out in practice most
effectually by the American judiciary through its mode of
enforcing written constitutions. How far it has gone in
developing their meaning and building upon the foundations which
they furnish has been made the subject of discussion in the
preceding chapter. It remains to consider its office of
adjudging statutes which come in conflict with their meaning, as
thus determined, to be void.

The idea of a supreme authority exercising the function of
setting aside acts of legislative bodies which it deemed
inconsistent with a higher law was familiar to Americans from an
early period of our colonial history.[Footnote: See Chap. I;
Dicey, "Law of the Constitution," 152; "Two Centuries Growth of
American Law," 12, 19.] The charter of each colony served the
office of a constitution. The Lords of Trade and Plantations
exercised the power of enforcing its observance. They did in
effect what, as the colonies passed into independent States with
written Constitutions, naturally became the function of their own
courts of last resort. The Constitution, like the charter, was
the supreme law of the land. Whatever statutes the legislature
of a State might pass, it passed as the constitutional
representative of the people of that State. It was not made
their plenary representative. Every Constitution contained some
provisions restricting the legislative power. If any particular
legislative action transgressed these restrictions, it
necessarily went beyond the authority of the body from which it
emanated.