A Defining Principle ...

I came across this quotation when I was reading Texas v. Johnson (1989), the Supreme Court case that protected flag burning under the First Amendment. Actually, the quotation was originally from Justice Robert Jackson who gave the majority opinion in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943). Justice Jackson later became the chief prosecutor against Nazi war criminals after World War II. His words about free speech are simply elegant.

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.