John Marshall Quotes
This [the Constitution] is the authoritative language of the American people; and, if gentlemen please, of the American States.
John Marshall, 1755-1835, Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, U. S. Congressman (Federalist, VA), U. S. Secretary of War, U. S. Secretary of State, Cohens v. Virginia, 1821
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In a 1949 dissenting opinion in Terminiello v. Chicago Jackson claimed the majority view would “convert the Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.”
Apparently the “faults and errors” of England and the United States in their constitutions were not so bad after all and it was Poland who subsequently had to rewrite and adopt new constitutions thereafter until 1997 when they seem to have adopted most of the “faults and errors.”
It was commonly asked of Blacks applying to register. There are few people who could give a cogent response to this. What made it terrible was that the white racist registrars had the unilateral authority to determine whether or not the oral response was adequate. Recording of responses were prohibited so that no Black who was disenfranchised could ever appeal when he/she was rejected. This is one of the thousands of techniques that were used throughout the South to prevent Negro voting. They were so egregious that Lyndon Johnson was abe to force through Southern filibusters The Voting Rights Act which has eliminated the worst of the racist restrictions on Black voting. As the worst of the racist white generation has died off, Southern discrimination in voting has lessened and the situation is better each year. By 2012 there were some who claimed that the law was no longer necessary do to changes in attitude and practice, but others worried that if there were no longer any forms of discrimination in voting, why some wanted to repeal the Voting Rights Act.
John Marshall was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 to 1835. Marshall remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longest serving justice in Supreme Court history, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential justices to ever sit on the Supreme Court. Prior to joining the Supreme Court (and for one month simultaneous to his tenure as Chief Justice), Marshall served as the United States Secretary of State under President John Adams.
