====================================
If We Can Root Out of Men’s Thinking
The Idea that
All Wars Are Legal;
At Last
We Will Have
Mobilized
The Forces Of Law,
On The Side
Of Peace.
The Very Purpose
Of The
Bill Of Rights
Was To Withdraw
Certain Subjects From
Political Controversy…
One’s Fundamental Rights
May Not Be Submitted
To Vote…
They Depend On The
Outcome Of No Election…
In our country are evangelists and zealots of many different political, economic and religious persuasions whose fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds -- that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous.
It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.
Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.
Our forefathers found the evils of free thinking more to be endured than the evils of inquest or suppression. This is because thoughtful, bold and independent minds are essential to the wise and considered self-government.
Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only a unanimity at the graveyard.
There is no such thing as an achieved liberty: like electricity, there can be no substantial storage and it must be generated as it is enjoyed, or the lights will go out.
The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.
Civil government cannot let any group ride roughshod over others simply because their consciences tell them to do so.
We are not final because we are infallible, but infallible only because we are final.
The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with, and even pay for, a good deal of rubbish.
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.
The priceless heritage of our society is the unrestricted constitutional right of each member to think as he will. Thought control is a copyright of totalitarianism, and we have no claim to it.
I cannot say that our country could have no secret police without becoming totalitarian, but I can say with great conviction that it cannot become totalitarian without a centralized national police.
The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice.
The day that this country ceases to be free for irreligion, it will cease to be free for religion.
Robert H. Jackson “country lawyer”(Jamestown)
Chief Prosecutor at Nuremburg.
Justice Robert H. Jackson quotes, above.
© 2010 3D Divine Deadbeat Dad ( - 6/15/12
|
Justice Robert H. Jackson Nuremberg |
Justice Robert H. Jackson |