Judicial inquiry vs. legislation
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 211 U.S. 210 - Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co. · 1908Most cited · 1,673 citing opinions
A judicial inquiry investigates, declares, and enforces liabilities as they stand on present or past facts and under laws supposed already to exist. That is its purpose and end. Legislation, on the other hand, looks to the future and changes existing conditions by making a new rule, to be applied thereafter to all or some part of those subject to its power. The establishment of a rate is the making of a rule for the future, and therefore is an act legislative, not judicial, in kind.
How often courts cite the cases defining “Judicial inquiry vs. legislation”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “Judicial inquiry vs. legislation” — 1,881 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 2 definitions, chronological · 1908–1913
A judicial inquiry investigates, declares, and enforces liabilities as they stand on present or past facts and under laws supposed already to exist. That is its purpose and end. Legislation, on the other hand, looks to the future, and changes existing conditions by making a new rule to be applied thereafter to all or some part of those subject to its power.