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Interpreting and Preserving the Constitution
Birth of the Monroe Doctrine.
James Monroe, our fifth President, was an American Revolutionary War hero who
also served as a member of the Virginia Ratifying Convention in 1788. The Monroe
Doctrine, embodied in his Annual Message to Congress in 1823, has been a cornerstone in American foreign policy for more than a century.
Its original purpose was to prevent European nations from extending their power
and influence into the western hemisphere and to guarantee the sovereign independence of Latin American republics. John Quincy Adams, Monroe’s Secretary of State,
helped to formulate the policy. The Monroe Doctrine has become so deeply rooted in
the American mind that it is commonly regarded as part of our unwritten Constitution. (Courtesy of the Library of Congress.)
The Independence of the Judiciary
Although we do not ordinarily associate judicial interpretation with judicial independence, the two practices are so closely related as to be
made of the same cloth. The basic purpose of granting independence to
any judicial body is to shield it from political interference and intrigue
emanating from the legislative or the executive branch, so that it may
reach a fair and impartial decision. By following intelligible, reasonable,
and uniform rules of interpretation, the judiciary in turn assures the