Joseph Story
Joseph Story
Joseph Storywas an American lawyer and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1811 to 1845. He is most remembered for his opinions in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee and The Amistad case, and especially for his magisterial Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, first published in 1833. Dominating the field in the 19th century, this work is a cornerstone of early American jurisprudence. It is the second comprehensive treatise on the provisions of...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJudge
Date of Birth18 September 1779
CountryUnited States of America
Be brief, be pointed, let your matter stand lucid in order, solid and at hand; spend not your words on trifles but condense; strike with the mass of thought, not drops of sense; press to the close with vigor, once begun, and leave - how hard the task
The plain import of the clause is, that congress shall have all the incidental and instrumental powers, necessary and proper to carry into execution all the express powers. It neither enlarges any power specifically granted; nor is it a grant of any new power to congress. But it is merely a declaration for the removal of all uncertainty, that the means of carrying into execution those, otherwise granted, are included in the grant.
The real object of the amendment was, not to countenance, much less to advance Mahometanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity; but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects, and to prevent any national ecclesiastical establis
A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government.
A good government implies two things; first, fidelity to the objects of the government; secondly, a knowledge of the means, by which those objects can be best attained.
He who seeks equity must do equity.
[The necessary and proper clause] neither enlarges any power specifically granted; nor is it a grant of any new power to Congress; But it is merely a declaration, for the removal of all uncertainty, that the means of carrying into execution those otherwise granted are included in the grant.
How easily men satisfy themselves that the Constitution is exactly what they wish it to be
The First Amendment was not intended to withdraw the Christian religion as a whole from the protection of Congress.
Human wisdom is the aggregate of all human experience, constantly accumulating, selecting, and reorganizing its own materials.
A government, forever changing and changeable, is, indeed, in a state bordering upon anarchy and confusion.
The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic ...
I know of no power, indeed, of which a free people ought to be more jealous, than of that of levying taxes and duties.
A new invention to poison people ... is not a patentable invention.