Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc., 514 U.S. 211, 35 (1995)

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Cite as: 514 U. S. 211 (1995)

Breyer, J., concurring in judgment

Ante, at 239. Indeed, the unnecessary building of such walls is, in itself, dangerous, because the Constitution blends, as well as separates, powers in its effort to create a government that will work for, as well as protect the liberties of, its citizens. See The Federalist No. 48 (J. Madison). That doctrine does not "divide the branches into watertight compartments," nor "establish and divide fields of black and white." Springer v. Philippine Islands, 277 U. S. 189, 209, 211 (1928) (Holmes, J., dissenting); see also Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U. S. 579, 635 (1952) (Jackson, J., concurring) (referring to the need for "workable government"); id., at 596-597 (Frankfurter, J., concurring); Mistretta v. United States, 488 U. S. 361, 381 (1989) (the doctrine does not create a "hermetic division among the Branches" but "a carefully crafted system of checked and balanced power within each Branch"). And, important separation-of-powers decisions of this Court have sometimes turned, not upon absolute distinctions, but upon degree. See, e. g., Crowell v. Benson, 285 U. S. 22, 48-54 (1932); A. L. A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U. S. 495, 551-555 (1935) (Cardozo, J., concurring). As the majority invokes the advice of an American poet, one might consider as well that poet's caution, for he not only notes that "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," but also writes, "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know/ What I was walling in or walling out." R. Frost, Mending Wall, The New Oxford Book of American Verse 395-396 (R. Ellmann ed. 1976).

Finally, I note that the cases the dissent cites are distinguishable from the one before us. Sampeyreac v. United States, 7 Pet. 222 (1833), considered a law similar to § 27A(b) (it reopened a set of closed judgments in fraud cases), but the Court did not reach the here relevant issue. Rather, the Court rested its conclusion upon the fact that Sampeyreac was not "a real person," while conceding that, were he real, the case "might present a different question." Id., at 238- 239. Freeborn v. Smith, 2 Wall. 160 (1865), which involved

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