Good Writing. Serious e-Reading.

THE CAUSE AND CURE OF HYSTERIA

MR. PRESIDENT, we’ve talked about hysteria in the United States several times, and I know it’s a subject that concerns you very much, and I wonder if we could go back to it, at least briefly, today?

“Yes, and I’ll tell you why it interests me. I may already have told you. I feel that if our constitutional system ever fails, it will be because people got scared and turned hysterical and someone in power will demagogue them right into a police state of some kind. That’s what I’ve always worried about. And still do.”

Last night I was reading a statement about a man I know you admired—we’ve discussed him before—Justice Brandeis. It was his dissent in a wiretapping case at the time the Prohibition Amendment was still in force. I believe the government, probably through the Justice Department, claimed that in order to catch some bootleggers it had to do some wiretapping. Or else it had done some wiretapping. I’m not sure which.

Anyway, the majority of the Supreme Court went along, agreed, but Justice Brandeis dissented. I’m sure you’re familiar with it, but could I read you what he said, in part anyway?

‘Go right ahead. I’ve probably read it at one time or another because I think I’ve read every one of his decisions, but . . . I’m sure whatever he said was right. Because he was a man who always thought his way through to the right conclusion.”