Note 282 — ARTICLE III (continued 2)

297 U.S. 1 (1936). The majority opinion evoked a protest from Justice Stone who said in dissenting: "The power of courts to declare ... [an act of Congress unconstitutional] is subject to two guiding principles of decision which ought never to be absent from judicial consciousness. One is that courts are concerned only with the power to enact statutes, not with their wisdom. The other is that while unconstitutional exercise of power by the executive and legislative branches of the government is subject to judicial restraint, the only check upon our own exercise of power is our own sense of self-restraint. For the removal of unwise laws from the statute books appeal lies not to the courts but to the ballot and to the processes of democratic government." Ibid. 78-79.