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Ultimate futility of such attempts to compel coherence is the lesson of every such effort from the Roman drive to stamp out Christianity as a disturber of its pagan unity, the Inquisition, as a means to religious and dynastic unity, the Siberian exiles as a means to Russian unity, down to the fast failing efforts of our present totalitarian enemies.

— Robert H. Jackson West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)

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More quotes by Robert H. Jackson

We can afford no liberties with liberty itself.

Procedural fairness, if not all that originally was meant by due process of law, is at least what it most uncompromisingly requires.

But when notice is a person's due, process which is a mere gesture is not 'due process.'

Not every defeat of authority is a gain for individual freedom, nor every judicial rescue of a convict a victory for liberty.

The Task of Maintaining Our Liberties: The Role of the Judiciary (1953)

A confession is wholly and incontestably voluntary only if a guilty person gives himself up to the law and becomes his own accuser.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert H. Jackson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.