Sublime

In July the cabinet sent Jay twenty-nine queries to clarify the meaning of neutrality and rule on American jurisdiction over the French seizure of ships in American waters. On August 8, replying on behalf of the Supreme Court, Jay declined to render an advisory opinion. The Constitution, he said, had set up three independent branches of government,

the American judge Hiller B. Zobel famously described it as ‘asking the ignorant to use the incomprehensible to decide the unknowable’.

including the United States, the courts are extremely limited in their ability to prevent the military from taking whatever action it deems necessary to preserve national security.