Bonus Quotation of the Day…
by Don Boudreaux
on March 7, 2021
… is another intentional repeat. On January 19th, 2014, I chose as the “Quotation of the Day” a passage from Daniel Webster’s 1818 argument before the U.S. Supreme Court during a hearing preceding the Court issuing its famous decision in Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) (popularly known as “the Dartmouth College case”); here’s Webster (emphasis added):
But this argument from necessity [which the state government raised as part of its rationale for taking over Dartmouth College] would equally apply in other cases. If it be well founded, it would prove, that, whenever any inconvenience or evil is experienced from the restrictions imposed on the legislature by the Constitution, these restrictions ought to be disregarded. It is enough to say, that the people have thought otherwise. They have, most wisely, chosen to take the risk of occasional inconvenience from the want of power, in order that there might be a settled limit to its exercise, and a permanent security against its abuse.
DBx: Where, today, is this constitutional wisdom?
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