What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it. And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow.
“What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned but never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.
Judge Learned Hand
Remarks are excerpted from a speech Hand gave at “I Am an American Day” in 1944. Hand was born on January 27 in 1872. Many consider Judge Hand the most influential American jurist to have not served on the Supreme Court.
Learned Hand: The Man and the Judge is a lengthy book review of the major legal biography of Hand. The 1961 obituary from Time is worthwhile.
Quiet so. Learned Hand’s closest contemporary equivalent is judge Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Among his accomplishments were his formulation of an objective test of when an act constitutes negligence even when most people in an industry aren’t careful, and creation of the “danger invites rescue” doctrine. Both expanded the scope of liability for personal injuries.
More Learned Hand quotes, please. He was surely one of the great thinkers/writers of the 20th century. I wouldn’t mind seeing some words from William O. Douglas as well.