456
CONSTITUTION OF THE U. STATES.
[BOOK III.
tion must be vested in some of its courts, either in an original, or an appellate form.
§ 1592. We next come to the consideration of those securities, which the constitution has provided for the due independence and efficiency of the judicial department.
§ 1593. The mode of appointment of the judges has necessarily come under review, in the examination of the structure and powers of the executive department. The president is expressly authorized, by and with the consent of the senate, to appoint the judges of the Supreme Court. The appointment of the judges of the inferior courts, is not expressly provided for; but has either been left to the discretion of congress, or silently belongs to the president, under the clause of the constitution authorizing him to appoint "all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for."[1] In the convention, a proposition at first prevailed, for the appointment of the judges of the Supreme Court by the senate, by a decided majority.[2] At a later period, however, upon the report of a committee, the appointment of the judges of the Supreme Court, was given to the president, subject to the advice and consent of the senate, by a unanimous vote.[3] The reasons for the change, were doubtless the same as those, which- ↑ Whether the Judges of the inferior courts of the United States are such inferior officers, as the constitution contemplates to be within the power of congress, to prescribe the mode of appointment of, so as to vest it in the president alone, or in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments, is a point, upon which no solemn judgment has ever been had. The practical construction has uniformly been, that they are not such inferior officers. And no act of congress prescribes the mode of their appointment. See the American Jurist for October, 1830, vol. 4, art. V. p. 298.
- ↑ Journal of Convention, 69, 98, 121, 137, 186, 187, 195, 196, 211, 212.
- ↑ Id. 325, 326, 340.
