QOTD

Compare Judge Soytomayor's take on judicial objectivity with that of Chief Justice John Marshall, writing for the Supreme Court in Osborn v. Bank of the United States, 22 U.S. 738, 866 (1824):

Judicial power, as contradistinguished from the power of the laws, has no existence. Courts are the mere instrument of the laws, and can will nothing. When they are said to exercise a discretion, it is a mere legal discretion, a discretion to be exercised in discerning the course prescribed by the law; and when that is discerned, it is the duty of the Court to follow it. Judicial power is never exercised for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the Judge; always for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the Legislature; or in other words, to the will of the law.

(via Bench Memos)