I feel certain many law school graduates were scratching their heads and checking their prescriptions when they thought they read the Georgia Supreme Court rule last week that it cannot review the constitutionality of a state statute without the Legislature's express consent. Sovereign immunity, dating from the days of divine right kings, will not permit it.

Didn't they teach us in Constitutional Law class that the question of judicial review of the acts of the other branches was settled by John Marshall in 1803?

Well, law school was a long time ago for some of us, so we could be wrong. Still, our aroused curiosity might be stifled by Justice Keith Blackwell's 71-page opinion in Lathrop v. Deal, citing a maze of decisions from remote times like 1935 and 1872.

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