Quotes from Justice Jackson
"Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves
exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves
only the unanimity of the graveyard." -Opinion in Barnette
"We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their
fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that
they started it. And we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a
trial of the causes of the war, for our position is that no grievances
or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly
renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy."
"The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so
calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot
tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being
repeated. 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." - Excerpt from Opening
Statement at the Nuremberg Trials, (1945)
Justice Jackson's commitment to the rule of law and dissent look downright prescient in today's world. Even though there were horrific crimes committed by the Nazis, we relied on the rule of law to try and punish the perpetrators. There would seem to be a parallel to todays actions regarding torture and the open-ended confinement of terrorist suspects in Cuba.
"Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves
exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves
only the unanimity of the graveyard." -Opinion in Barnette
"We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their
fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that
they started it. And we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a
trial of the causes of the war, for our position is that no grievances
or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly
renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy."
"The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so
calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot
tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being
repeated. 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." - Excerpt from Opening
Statement at the Nuremberg Trials, (1945)
Justice Jackson's commitment to the rule of law and dissent look downright prescient in today's world. Even though there were horrific crimes committed by the Nazis, we relied on the rule of law to try and punish the perpetrators. There would seem to be a parallel to todays actions regarding torture and the open-ended confinement of terrorist suspects in Cuba.
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