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Quote by John Paul Stevens

“A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.”

Quote by John Paul Stevens

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John Paul Stevens
John Paul Stevens

John Paul Stevens was a distinguished figure in the United States legal system, serving as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1975 to 2010. He was known for his progressive views and his significant influence on the Court's decisions. more

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“At bottom, the Court's opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self-government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.”

PeopleNeedsSelfGovernmentCommonOpinionDemocracyStrangeMajorityCourtBottomCommon SenseCorporateCorporationsRejectionFlawsImperfectFoundingDistinctiveSelf-governmentUnderminingAmerican DemocracyTheodoreMoney In PoliticsStrange Times
Author:John Paul Stevens
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“By requiring that an execution be relatively painless, we necessarily protect the inmate from enduring any punishment that is comparable to the suffering inflicted on his victim. This trend, while appropriate and required by the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, actually undermines the very premise on which public approval of the retribution rationale is based.”

SufferingProtectVictimEndurePunishmentAppropriateTrendsUnusualAmendmentsApprovalExecutionPremisesProhibitionRetributionInmatesRationalePainlessCruel And Unusual Punishment
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“In the performance of an illocutionary act in the literal utterance of a sentence, the speaker intends to produce a certain effect by means of getting the hearer to recognize his intention to produce that effect; and furthermore, if he is using the words literally, he intends this recognition to be achieved in virtue of the fact that the rules for using the expressions he utters associate the expression with the production of that effect.”

IfsMeanFactsCertainVirtueEffectsProduceExpressionPerformancesIntentionProductionsSentencesRecognitionSpeakersAssociatesLiteralUtterance
Author:John Searle
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