Ruth Bader Ginsburg Quotes
The Constitution doesn't follow the flag abroad.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U. S. Supreme Court Justice, Confirmation hearings, July 21, 1993
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
On the Fugitive Slave Act: As one of the leading American Catholic intellectuals during the 19th Century, Brownson’s opinions went far in keeping Catholics from joining the side of the abolitionists. However, just a few years later his tone would change and he would become one of the few Catholic writers to refuse to defend slavery, see {610710}. While the majority of Catholics refused to join the abolition movement, they often did so because abolitionism was closely tied to anti-Catholicism, see Gordon {611392} or Shaftesbury {611106}. Other reasons included Irish immigrants fearful of competition from Black labor and the fear of liberal individualism and social disorder, which was prevalent in 19th century Catholic thought. For a further explanation on the relationship between American Catholics and slavery, see McGreevy {612036}.
In 1836 the House of Representatives adopted the so-called "Gag Rule" whereby the house could not act on all further petitions regarding slavery, even though thousands of petitions were being received. Adams was one of the few who protested the Gag Rule:. Adams even submitted petitions with which he did not agree:. Every year Adams attempted to get the Gag Rule repealed. He was even threatened with censure for his efforts, but his status as an ex-president protected him. Finally, in 1844, Adams' perennial resolution carried:
The Presidential election of 1800 produced a crisis even greater than that of 2000. There was an Electoral College tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr—both of the same party, Democratic Republicans. The Federalist Party led by President John Adams had been totally rejected by the voters and Adams was in third place. However, the Federalists saw an opportunity of maintaining the Presidency anyway. The Constitution threw the election into the House of Representatives with each State delegation having a single vote. In the House, the Federalists had parity with Jefferson’s party which resulted in 35 tie votes. Finally, Congressman Bayard, the sole Congressman from Delaware, withheld his vote on the 36th ballot, thereby electing Thomas Jefferson of the opposition party. His reason was:
Powell was the Secretary of State and Addington kept advising the administration that as long as the President was acting in defense of the country in his capacity as Commander in Chief, he did not have to obey any existing laws that had been Constitutionally passed which in the opinion of the President restricted or limited the President or the executive branch. Addington was an attorney and Assistant to the Vice President, but he was given much responsibility for administration policy. Powell the Secretary of State of the Administration could not have disagreed more and although most politicians including Republicans disagreed with the Addington thesis, Powell was one of the few Republicans to criticize the Addington position.
Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in September 2020. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton, replacing retiring justice Byron White, and at the time was generally viewed as a moderate consensus-builder. She eventually became part of the liberal wing of the Court as the Court shifted to the right over time. Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Court, after Sandra Day O'Connor. During her tenure, Ginsburg wrote notable majority opinions, including United States v. Virginia (1996), Olmstead v. L.C. (1999), Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. (2000), and City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005).
