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mahatmakanejeeves

(57,290 posts)
Sat Jul 4, 2020, 08:54 AM Jul 2020

My nominations for the Garden of Heroes

I'll be working on this throughout the day. I can guarantee that none of these will pass muster with the White House.

Don't look for perfection. It's not there.

Peter Zenger

Born October 26, 1697
Impflingen, Rhineland-Palatinate, Holy Roman Empire
Died July 28, 1746 (aged 48)
New York
Citizenship British
Occupation Newspaper writer
Years active 1720–1746
Known for Zenger Trial
Notable work
The New York Weekly Journal

John Peter Zenger (October 26, 1697 – July 28, 1746) was a German printer and journalist in New York City. Zenger printed The New York Weekly Journal. He was accused of libel in 1734 by William Cosby, the royal governor of New York, but the jury acquitted Zenger, who became a symbol for freedom of the press.

In 1733, Zenger began printing The New York Weekly Journal, in which the journal voiced opinions critical of the colonial governor, William Cosby. On November 17, 1734, on Cosby's orders, the sheriff arrested Zenger. After a grand jury refused to indict him, the Attorney General Richard Bradley charged him with libel in August 1735.

Zenger's lawyers, Andrew Hamilton and William Smith, Sr., successfully argued that truth is a defense against charges of libel.

Katherine Graham

John Mitchell

President Nixon's former law partner served as his attorney general before resigning in 1972 to head the Committee for the Re-election of the President. In September 1972, stories by The Washington Post linked Mitchell to a secret campaign fund that paid for the Watergate burglary. When Post reporter Carl Bemstein called for a comment, Mitchell directed his response at the Post's publisher, saying "Katie Graham's gonna get her tit caught in a big fat wringer if that's ever published." According to later testimony, Mitchell approved $250,000 for the break-in.

Mitchell was later charged with conspiracy, perjury and obstruction of justice. He was convicted in 1974, the first time in U.S. history that an attorney general had been convicted of criminal activities. Mitchell served 19 months in a minimum-security prison in Alabama before being released on parole for medical reasons. Mitchell's outspoken wife, Martha, whose allegations of White House involvement in the scandal had been attributed to alcoholism and mental illness, died in 1976.

After his release from prison, Mitchell lived in Georgetown with longtime companion Mary Gore Dean -- part owner of the exclusive Jockey Club. He died at age 75 on Nov. 9, 1988. Nixon led the funeral procession for his most loyal supporter. A decorated Navy veteran, Mitchell was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Robert H. Jackson

Robert Houghwout Jackson (February 13, 1892 – October 9, 1954) was an American attorney and judge who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He had previously served as United States Solicitor General, and United States Attorney General, and is the only person to have held all three of those offices. Jackson was also notable for his work as the Chief United States Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals following World War II.

Jackson was admitted to the bar through a combination of reading law with an established attorney and attending law school. He is the most recent justice without a law degree to be appointed to the Supreme Court. Jackson is well known for his 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." Jackson developed a reputation as one of the best writers on the Supreme Court and one of the most committed to enforcing due process as protection from overreaching federal agencies.

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U.S. Supreme Court, 1941–1954

When Harlan Fiske Stone replaced the retiring Charles Evans Hughes as Chief Justice in 1941, Roosevelt appointed Jackson to the resulting vacant Associate's seat. The nomination was sent to Congress on June 12, 1941, and Jackson was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 7, 1941, receiving his commission on July 11, 1941. Robert H. Jackson was the 82nd Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, where he was known for his eloquent writing style and championing of individual liberties.

In 1943, Jackson wrote the majority opinion in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, which overturned a public school regulation making it mandatory to salute the flag, and imposing penalties of expulsion and prosecution upon students who failed to comply. Jackson's stirring language in Barnette concerning individual rights is widely quoted. Jackson's concurring opinion in 1952's Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (forbidding President Harry Truman's seizure of steel mills during the Korean War to avert a strike), in which Jackson formulated a three-tier test for evaluating claims of Presidential power, remains one of the most widely cited opinions in Supreme Court history. (It was quoted repeatedly by Supreme Court nominees John Roberts and Samuel Alito, during their confirmation hearings.)

{snip}

If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.

Woody Guthrie

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (/ˈɡʌ?ri/; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, who is considered one of the most significant figures in American western folk music. His music, including songs, such as "This Land Is Your Land", has inspired several generations both politically and musically.

See? Woodrow Wilson will get a statue after all.
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