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Robert H. Jackson
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QUOTE: The
privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of
the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to condemn
and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that
civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive
their being repeated. That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung
with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive
enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that
Power has ever paid to Reason. [Opening Address to the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg
Trials (November 10, 1945).]
AUTHOR: Robert H. Jackson A.K.A Robert
Houghwout Jackson (February 13, 1892 – October 9, 1954) was United
States Attorney General (1940–1941) and an Associate Justice of the United
States Supreme Court (1941–1954). He was also the chief United States
prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. A "county-seat lawyer", he
remains the last Supreme Court justice appointed who did not graduate from any
law school (though Justice Stanley Reed who served from 1938–1957 was the last
such justice to serve on the court), although he did attend Albany Law School
in Albany, New York for one year. He is remembered for his famous advice, that
"...any lawyer worth his salt will tell the suspect in no uncertain terms
to make no statement to the police under any circumstances." and
for his aphorism describing the Supreme Court, "We are not final because
we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final." Many
lawyers revere Justice Jackson as one of the best writers on the court, and one
of the most committed to due process protections from overreaching federal agencies.
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