"No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid."

" The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. "

***Receiving Federal Funds as a result of their decision seems to violate this!***

"There is no position which depends on clearer principles, than that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid. To deny this, would be to affirm, that the deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people themselves; that men acting by virtue of powers, may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid."

***Courts must not only place the Constitution higher than the laws passed by the legislature, they must also place the intentions of the people ahead of the intentions of their representatives. Meaning that the recent referendum on joint child custody has significant weight in court even if the legislature does not act!***

"This independence of the judges is equally requisite to guard the Constitution and the rights of individuals from the effects of those ill humors, which the arts of designing men, or the influence of particular conjunctures, sometimes disseminate among the people themselves, and which, though they speedily give place to better information, and more deliberate reflection, have a tendency, in the meantime, to occasion dangerous innovations in the government, and serious oppressions of the minor party in the community. "

***Judicial Independence is tied to the rights of individuals and a guard against "dangerous innovations", i.e., no-fault divorce and judicial discretion for child "title to the custody" decisions.***

" To avoid an arbitrary discretion in the courts, it is indispensable that they should be bound down by strict rules and precedents, which serve to define and point out their duty in every particular case that comes before them; "

**Violated in that all precidence prior to 1970 was invalidated by the currently adopted custody laws.***