Mere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process.
THURGOOD MARSHALLEnding racial discrimination in jury selection can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely.
More Thurgood Marshall Quotes
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Sometimes history takes things into its own hands.
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The measure of a country’s greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis.
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Do what you think is right and let the law catch up.
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I cannot accept this invitation for I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever ‘fixed’ at the Philadelphia Convention… To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start. [Progressive]
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Our Constitution is the envy of the world, as it should be for it is the grand design of the finest nation on earth.
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None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns – bent down and helped us pick up our boots.
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A man can make what he wants of himself if he truly believes that he must be ready for hard work and many heartbreaks.
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The death penalty is no more effective a deterrent than life imprisonment. It is also evident that the burden of capital punishment falls upon the poor, the ignorant and the underprivileged members of society.
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We must dissent from the fear.
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Today’s Constitution is a realistic document of freedom only because of several corrective amendments. Those amendments speak to a sense of decency and fairness that I and other Blacks cherish.
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What is the quality of your intent?
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We can always stick together when we are losing, but tend to find means of breaking up when we’re winning.
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If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.
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It is now well established that the Constitution protects the right to receive information and ideas.This right to receive information and ideas, regardless of their social worth, is fundamental to our free society.
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To protest against injustice is the foundation of all our American democracy.
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I’m the world’s original gradualist. I just think ninety-odd years is gradual enough.
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Surely the fact that a uniformed police officer is wearing his hair below his collar will make him no less identifiable as a policeman.
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Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men’s minds.
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The Constitution was a product of its times.
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It is a historic step toward eliminating the shameful practice of racial discrimination in the selection of juries.
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The process of democracy is one of change. Our laws are not frozen into immutable form, they are constantly in the process of revision in response to the needs of a changing society.
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Classifications and distinctions based on race or color have no moral or legal validity in our society. They are contrary to our constitution and laws.
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The First Amendment serves not only the needs of the polity but also those of the human spirit – a spirit that demands self-expression .
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Ending racial discrimination in jury selection can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely.
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The ban directly hampers the partys ability to spread its message and hamstrings voters seeking to inform themselves about the candidates and issues.
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The United States has been called the melting pot of the world. But it seems to me that the colored man either missed getting into the pot or he got melted down.
THURGOOD MARSHALL