naturally have a certain pride of opinion to conquer before,
should its constitutionality become afterward the subject of
litigation before them, they could be in a frame of mind to
render an unprejudiced judgment. One of the bills which came
under the eye of Chancellor Kent as a member of the Council was
afterward the source of controversy before him in court. He
adhered to his original views, but was overruled by the Supreme
Court of the United States. Chief Justice Marshall gave the
opinion, and half apologetically alluded to this circumstance in
these words:

The State of New York maintains the constitutionality of these
laws; and their legislature, their council of revision, and
their judges, have repeatedly concurred in this opinion. It is
supported by great names--by names which have all the titles to
consideration that virtue, intelligence, and office can bestow.
No tribunal can approach the decision of this question without
feeling a just and real respect for that opinion which is
sustained by such authority; but it is the province of this
court, while it respects, not to bow to it implicitly; and the
judges must exercise, in the examination of the subject, that
understanding which Providence has bestowed upon them, with
that independence which the people of the United States expect
from this department of the government.[Footnote: Gibbons
_v._ Ogden, 9 Wheaton's Reports, 1.]

A device for obtaining the same end--the views of the judges in
advance of the enactment of a law--in a different way, has been
from the first quite common. This is for the legislature to ask
them specially for their opinion as to the constitutionality of a