Conclusions
Our findings appear to suggest that either Congress has a considerable feeling for the subtle nuances of administrative interrelationships, or that it is loose and inconsistent in the language it employs. The statutory provisions run a gamut, permitting the exchange of information, providing formally prescribed sources of advice, compelling agencies to consult, to consult and consider, to consult prior to taking specific action, hinging action to the receipt of a prior enabling report or request, requiring prior consultation and fact finding, requiring clearance or approval from a source external to the agency, and finally, compelling action in conformance with the request of another agency. It has harnessed the judgment and resources of many agencies to the making of particular kinds of decisions, it has provided for interagency co-operation and assistance in the accomplishment of policy goals; and it has taken care to assure co-ordination of related programs.
These are the relationships which Congress has sought to establish among administrative agencies.
Chapter X
JUDICIAL REVIEW
Edward S. Corwin has appraised as a misfortune the fact that “Constitutionalism has worked in this country to impress upon the discussion of public measures a legalistic—not to say theological—mold,” and has substituted “for the question of the beneficial use of the powers of government ... the question of their existence.”[719]
The United States Supreme Court, rather than the judicial system, is popularly conceived to have a distinctive role to play in checking arbitrary government in time of emergency;[720] and it endeavors to perform that role, albeit none too successfully at times by ruling on the constitutionality of the government power asserted during such period of crisis. However, as the chief appellate body in a judicial system which as a whole “handles a mere trickle of the great issues arising”[721] during an emergency, the Supreme Court cannot reasonably be expected to formulate a coherent theory of democratic response to emergency whereby action designed to meet the exigencies of war can be harmonized with our constitutional system with only minimum risk to the preservation thereof.