The Declaration: He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Inland Empire Law Weekly is reviewing each of the 27 reasons for independence. Today's reason finally deals with our reader's favorite subject: the law. This issue appears to have been more clear than others: The North Carolina governor refused a bill that would have established courts in 1773. Governor Josiah Martin wrote about it in a letter to colonial Secretary of State William Legge. Martin took issue upon issue with the concisely titled bill: "An Act for dividing the Province into six several Districts, and for Establishing a Superior Court of Justice in each of the said Districts; and for Establishing Inferior Courts of Pleas and Quarter Sessions in the several Counties of this Province, and regulating the Proceedings therein." Martin vetoed the bill in its entirety because it would have offered jurisdiction over suits that King George objected to. He wrote it would have allowed civil suits against debtors who lived outside of the colonies, and it would have allowed those suits to seize the debtors' lands in the colonies, both of which would have gone against King George's wishes. "I think this Act authorizes proceedings against the effects of Persons who have never resided in the Colony, repugnant to His Majesty's additional Instruction," Martin wrote. As Ryan Williams wrote in the Duke Law Journal, this veto completely halted the administration of justice in the colony. "The resulting impasse effectively terminated judicial authority in North Carolina and left the residents of the colony without a fully functioning court system for more than three years," Williams wrote.