Coercing consent


From a landmark Supreme Court case, and worth remembering in when Congress starts talking about banning flag burning.

"Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard. It seems trite but necessary to say that the First Amendment to our Constitution was designed to avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.
"There is no mysticism in the American concept of the state or of the nature or origin of it's authority. We set up government by consent of the governed, and the Bill of Rights denies those in power any legal opportunity to coerce that consent."
— Justice Robert Jackson

Sometimes we need to remind "those in power" that the only reason they have power is to defend the rights of the individual.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Tue - July 25, 2006 at 07:19 AM  Tag


 ◊  ◊   ◊  ◊ 

Random selections from NeoWayland's library



Pagan Vigil "Because LIBERTY demands more than just black or white"
© 2005 - 2009 All Rights Reserved