Thomas Jefferson on the Corruptibility of the Judiciary

"To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions: a very dangerous doctrine indee[d] and one which would place us under the despotism of an Oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power, and the privileges of their corps. Their maxim is ‘boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem,’* and their power the more dangerous as they are in office for life, and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective controul. The constitution has erected no such single tribunal knowing that, to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time & party its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departmen[ts] co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves."

Thomas Jefferson to William Charles Jarvis, September 28, 1820, accessed via https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-16-02-0234.

*“It is the role of a good judge to enlarge (or use liberally) his jurisdiction (or remedial authority).”