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2009 July 24
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"The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the states;
and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their nationality,
nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people.
If one of the states chooses to withdraw from the compact,
it would be difficult to disapprove its right of doing so, and
the Federal Government would have no means of maintaining its claims
directly either by force or right." |
"All questions of power, arising under the constitution of the United States, whether they relate to the federal or a state government, must be considered of great importance. The federal government being formed for certain purposes, is limited in its powers, and can in no case exercise authority where the power has not been delegated. The states are sovereign; with the exception of certain powers, which have been invested in the general government, and inhibited to the states. No state can coin money, emit bills of credit, pass ex post facto laws, or laws impairing the obligation of contracts, &c. If any state violate a provision of the constitution, or be charged with such violation to the injury of private rights, the question is made before this tribunal; to whom all such questions, under the constitution, of right belong. In such a case, this court is to the state, what its own supreme court would be, where the constitutionality of a law was questioned under the constitution of the state. And within the delegation of power, the decision of this court is as final and conclusive on the state, as would be the decision of its own court in the case stated." |
"The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, and wording of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as its interpretation by every major commentator and court in the first half-century after its ratification, indicates that what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner." |
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2009 July 23
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"The constitutional right of free expression... is designed and intended to remove governmental restraints from the arena of public discussion, putting the decision as to what views shall be voiced in the hands of each of us, in the hope that the use of such freedom will ultimately produce a more capable citizenry and more perfect polity and in the belief that no other approach would comport with the premise of individual dignity and choice upon which our political systems rests." |
"It is the essence of the institutions of liberty that it be recognized that guilt is personal and cannot be attributed to the holding of opinions or to mere intent in the absence of overt acts." |
"A theory deeply etched in our law [is that] a free society prefers to punish the few who abuse the rights of free speech after they break the law rather than to throttle them and all others beforehand." |
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2009 July 22
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"Life and liberty can be as much endangered from illegal methods used to convict those thought to be criminals as from the actual criminals themselves." |
"The history of liberty has largely been the history
of the observance of procedural safeguards." |
"Although this nation unquestionably must take strong action under the leadership of the commander in chief to protect itself against enormous and unprecedented threats, that necessity cannot negate the existence of the most basic fundamental rights for which the people of this country have fought and died for well over two hundred years... In sum, there can be no question that the Fifth Amendment right asserted by the Guantanamo detainees in this litigation -- the right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law -- is one of the most fundamental rights recognized by the U.S. Constitution." |
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2009 July 21
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"A jury consists of twelve persons
chosen to decide who has the better lawyer." |
"A criminal trial is not a search for truth.
It is much too circumscribed for that.
Rather, a trial is a formalized contest for
the hearts and minds of a panel of twelve.
It is a quest for a verdict in which information
is selected and screened (we can almost say “processed”)
before it is allowed to reach jurors." |
"I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet devised by man,
by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution." |
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2009 July 20
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"The only shape in which equality is
really connected with justice is this --
justice presupposes general rules.
If these general rules are to be maintained at all,
it is obvious that they must be applied equally
to every case which satisfies their terms." |
"The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech." |
"The very aim and end of our institutions is just this:
that we may think what we like and say what we think." |
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