Willoughby, Westel W. (1867–1945)
WILLOUGHBY, WESTEL W. (1867–1945)
Westel Woodbury Willoughby taught political science at Johns Hopkins University (1894–1933) and was a founder of the American Political Science Association. He wrote nearly two dozen books, including The Supreme Court of the United States (1890), The Nature of the State (1896), The American Constitutional System (1904), and The ConstitutionalLaw of the United States (1910; second edition, 1922).
Willoughby rejected the notion that federalism implied division of sovereignty between the central government and the states. He described the Constitution in terms of limited government, but regarded the central government as possessing the ultimate authority in the country and believed that in crisis situations (such as civil war) the rights of both states and citizens must yield to the inherent power of national self-preservation. Because he thought the government must at other times be limited to constitutionally delegated powers he was especially critical of the decisions in the insular cases.
Dennis J. Mahoney
(1986)