“It is, in my opinion, offensive to our concept of justice
to punish a man for doing exactly what one
has done himself.” “The Germans,” Biddle said, “fought
a much cleaner war at sea than we did.“
By Paul Craig Roberts: The showtrial of a somewhat arbitrarily selected group of 21 surviving Nazis [National Socialists] at Nuremberg during 1945-46 was US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson’s show. Jackson was the chief prosecutor. As a long-time admirer of Jackson, I always assumed that he did a good job. to punish a man for doing exactly what one
has done himself.” “The Germans,” Biddle said, “fought
a much cleaner war at sea than we did.“
My admiration for Jackson stems from his defense of law as a shield of the people rather than a weapon in the hands of government, and from his defense of the legal principle known as mens rea, that is, that crime requires intent. I often cite Jackson for his defense of these legal principles that are the very foundation of liberty. Indeed, I cited Jackson in my recent July 31 column. His defense of law as a check on government power plays a central role in the book that I wrote with Lawrence Stratton, The Tyranny of Good Intentions.
In 1940 Jackson was US Attorney General. He addressed federal prosecutors and warned them against “picking the man and then putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him.