<Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> (T) he candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal . Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges . It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> (T) he candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal . Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges . It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> <P> Lincoln was alluding here to the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford, in which the Court had struck down a federal statute for the first time since Marbury v. Madison . </P> <P> It has been argued that the judiciary is not the only branch of government that may interpret the meaning of the Constitution . Article VI requires federal and state officeholders to be bound "by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution ." It has been argued that such officials may follow their own interpretations of the Constitution, at least until those interpretations have been tested in court . </P>

Where did the idea of judicial review come from