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There is danger that, if the Court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.

Robert H. Jackson

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Robert H. Jackson
Age: 62 †
Born: 1892
Born: February 13
Died: 1954
Died: October 9
Former Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court Of The United States
Judge
Lawyer
Politician
Robert Houghwout Jackson
Suicide
Bills
Doctrinaire
Logic
Pact
Court
Convert
Danger
Constitutional
Wisdom
Temper
Rights
Practical
Little
Bill

More quotes by Robert H. Jackson

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I used to say that, as Solicitor General, I made three arguments of every case. First came the one that I planned-as I thought, logical, coherent, complete. Second was the one actually presented-interrupted, incoherent, disjointed, disappointing. The third was the utterly devastating argument that I thought of after going to bed that night.
Robert H. Jackson
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Education should be a lifelong process, the formal period serving as a foundation on which life's structure may rest and rise.
Robert H. Jackson
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This Court is forever adding new stories to the temples of constitutional law, and the temples have a way of collapsing when one story too many is added.
Robert H. Jackson
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The very purpose of a bill of rights is to withdraw certain subjects from...political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities.
Robert H. Jackson
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When the Supreme Court moved to Washington in 1800, it was provided with no books, which probably accounts for the high quality of early opinions.
Robert H. Jackson
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The day that this country ceases to be free for irreligion it will cease to be free for religion - except for the sect that can win political power.
Robert H. Jackson
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That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury, stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.
Robert H. Jackson
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Not every defeat of authority is a gain for individual freedom, nor every judicial rescue of a convict a victory for liberty.
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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.
Robert H. Jackson
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The duty to disclose knowledge of crime rests upon all citizens.
Robert H. Jackson
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One's right to life, liberty, and property depends on the outcome of no election.
Robert H. Jackson
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Your job today tells me nothing of your future--your use of your leisure today tells me just what your tomorrow will be.
Robert H. Jackson
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Due process requires some definite link, some minimum connection, between a state and the person, property or transaction it seeks to tax.
Robert H. Jackson
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The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy. One's right to life, liberty and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly may not be submitted to vote they depend on no elections.
Robert H. Jackson
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Perhaps you have heard about the college executives who were discussing what they wanted to do after retirement age. One hoped to run a prison or school of correction so that the alumni would never come back to visit. Another chose to manage an orphan asylum so that he would not be plagued with advice from parents.
Robert H. Jackson
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I see no reason why I should be consciously wrong today because I was unconsciously wrong yesterday.
Robert H. Jackson
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It is only the words of the bill that have presidential approval, where that approval is given. It is not to be supposed that in signing a bill the President endorses the whole Congressional Record.
Robert H. Jackson
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In this court the parties changed positions as nimbly as if dancing a quadrille.
Robert H. Jackson
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But the validity of a doctrine does not depend on whose ox it gores.
Robert H. Jackson
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It is possible to hold a faith with enough confidence to believe that what should be rendered to God does not need to be decided and collected by Caesar.
Robert H. Jackson