The Least Dangerous Branch

One of the Constitution's most insightful critics, writing under the psuedonym of Brutus, argued that the federal judiciary was particularly dangerous to the authority of state governments and to the liberties of the people. In Federalist 78, Publius insisted that the judiciary was the least dangerous branch of the federal government, because it had "neither force nor will, but merely judgment." In a sense, they were both right.