We should then have government by the judiciary with a vengeance. Our constitutional system would be no longer reasonably fixed and stable, no longer regulated by the justice of necessary general rules, but would be subject to constant uncertainty and change as judges might think the moral atmosphere of the moment or the will or opinion or interests of the majority required. It would, of course, be better to have no constitutional restraints at all, and to vest supreme power and corresponding responsibility in the legislative branch of our government. It is of the essence of judicial power that judges in deciding cases shall be bound by principles, rules and precedents, that they shall not be permitted to exercise arbitrary discretion, and that they shall be required to give reasons for their decisions. A court bound by no rules or principles at all would not be exercising judicial power as we understand that term. If we were to vest in legislatures or courts the discretion to obey or disobey constitutional restraints according as the prevailing moral or political sentiment might seem to dictate, we would at once deprive such restraints of all practical force and effect, and would have a constitution only in name and form and not in substance. As the late Chief Justice Fuller, _clarum et venerabile nomen_, so well said in the Lottery case, "our form of government may remain notwithstanding legislation or decision, but, as long ago observed, it is with governments as with religions, the form may survive the substance of the faith."[11] The limited time at my disposal compels me to confine this address to the aspect of constitutional morality which is presented by the criticism of the courts for refusing to enforce unconstitutional statutes. This seems to me to be the most dangerous of all the lines of attack. I regret that I have not time to deal with other important aspects of my subject, such as the movement for the recall of judges and judicial decisions, the agitation for the initiative and the referendum, and the growing practice on the part of legislatures and executives of abandoning the consideration of constitutional questions and leaving this duty to the courts, thus casting upon the judges the sole responsibility and frequently the unpopularity and even odium of enforcing constitutional restraints.