Sunday, January 13, 2008

Orthodoxy

“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.”

— Justice Robert Jackson, United States Supreme Court, 1943

This was written during World War II. I love the image of a constitutional constellation almost as much as the nostalgic image of a government interested in steering our ship of state by it.

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