quotable

Can I get an "amen"?!

"The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and official and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts.

One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections."

-Justice Robert H. Jackson, 1943 West Virginia v. Barnette. In his majority opinion, Jackson (and the Court) held that a state could not force a Jehovah's Witness child to salute the American flag -- even during wartime.