Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quoteShare via Email Print this Page Daily Quotes Archives2014-07-20 Jul 18, 2014Nullification is but one legitimate result in an appropriate constitutional process safeguarded by judges and the judicial system. When juries refuse to convict on the basis of what they think are unjust laws, they are performing their duty as jurors.~ Judge Jack B. Weinstein[T]o deny a defendant of the possibility of jury nullification would be to defeat the central purpose of the jury system.~ Judge Thomas A. Wiseman, Jr.The right of the jury to decide questions of law was widely recognized in the colonies. In 1771, John Adams stated unequivocally that a juror should ignore a judge’s instruction on the law if it violates fundamental principles: “It is not only ... [the juror’s] right, but his duty, in that case, to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court.” There is much evidence of the general acceptance of this principle in the period immediately after the Constitution was adopted.~ Yale Law Journal Jul 17, 2014Liberty is never out of bounds or off limits; it spreads wherever it can capture the imagination of men.~ E. B. WhiteTo be what no one ever was, to be what everyone has been: Freedom is the mean of those extremes that fence all effort in.~ Mark Van DorenEternal vigilence is the price of liberty.~ Wendell Phillips Jul 16, 2014People demand freedom only when they have no power.~ Friedrich NietzscheStudents throughout the totalitarian world risk life and limb for freedom of expression, many American college students are demanding that big brother restrict their freedom of speech on campus. This demand for enhanced censorship is not emanating only from the usual corner – the know-nothing fundamentalist right – it is coming from the radical, and increasingly not-so-radical left as well.~ Alan DershowitzWise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.~ Plato Jul 15, 2014The act of voting is one opportunity for us to remember that our whole way of life is predicated on the capacity of ordinary people to judge carefully and well.~ Alan KeyesCollectivism is the political theory that states that the will of the people is omnipotent, an individual must obey; that society as a whole, not the individual, is the unit of moral value. ... Collectivism is the application of the altruist ethics to politics.~ Andrew BernsteinThe public must be put in its place, so that it may exercise its own powers, but no less and perhaps even more, so that each of us may live free of the trampling and the roar of a bewildered herd.~ Walter Lippmann Jul 14, 2014Why does it [government] always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?~ Henry David ThoreauThe First and Fourteenth Amendments say that Congress and the States shall make “no law” which abridges freedom of speech or of the press. In order to sanction a system of censorship I would have to say that “no law” does not mean what it says, that “no law” is qualified to mean “some” laws. I cannot take this step.~ William O. DouglasFreedom includes the right to say what others may object to and resent…The essence of citizenship is to be tolerant of strong and provocative words.~ John G. Diefenbaker Previous week's quotes Next week's quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print