I should concur in this result more readily if the Court could reach it by analysis of the statute instead of by psychoanalysis of Congress. When we decide from legislative history, including statements of witnesses at hearings, what Congress probably had in mind, we must put ourselves in the place of a majority of Congressmen and act according to the impression we think this history should have made on them. Never having been a Congressman, I am handicapped in that weird endeavor. That process seems to me not interpretation of a statute but creation of a statute.
More from Robert H. Jackson
We granted certiorari, and in this Court the parties changed positions as nimbly as if dancing a quadrille.
Permalink to quote #34 But the validity of a doctrine does not depend on whose ox it gores.
Permalink to quote #36 Reversal by a higher court is not proof that justice is thereby better done. There is no doubt that if there were a super-Supreme Court, a substantial proporti…
Permalink to quote #33