Appellate court Justice Apolinario Bruselas Jr. wrote in his 38-page ruling: "Courts may not directly intervene in the exercise of diplomacy no matter how proudly or meekly, strongly or weakly, such exercise may be conducted by the appropriate political organ of government." Explaining this, Brusales paraphrased former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. by saying "... as Justice Holmes once wisely observed, the other branches of Government are the ultimate guardians of the liberties and welfare of the people in quite as great a degree as the courts." The Court of Appeals cited the case of Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Co. vs. May as the source of the quote. It developed, however, that Holmes had actually written it as "... legislatures are ultimate guardians of the liberties and welfare of the people in quite as great a degree as the courts." The quote, apparently, originated from a dissenting opinion written by Justice John M. Harlan II, wherein he quoted Holmes as if the word "legislatures" meant the "other branches of the Government".