On Wednesday, the Supreme Court and its carefully manufactured conservative majority will hear the first in a chain of cases that may well determine for the foreseeable future the survival of the system of checks and balances, and which also may well determine whether or not the presidency is turned into everything the founders were afraid it might. In 1787, at the Philadelphia Convention, that magnificent curmudgeon, George Mason, explained why the proposed presidency scared him down to the buckles on his shoes.

The President of the United States has no Constitutional Council (a thing unknown in any safe and regular government), he will therefore be unsupported by proper information and advice; and will generally be directed by minions and favorites—or he will become a tool to the Se

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