FRANK MacGABHANN
Sir, - December 8th of this year will mark the 100th anniversary of the accession of Oliver Wendell Holmes, the greatest English-speaking judge who ever lived, to the US Supreme Court. The literary style of his opinions ranks with the greatest writers of prose in the English language.
Holmes was a great believer in freedom of expression, not for the thought we agree with, but in "freedom for the thought that we hate". He believed that the test of a great society was whether it granted freedom to its citizens to utter words which the majority loathed. He said that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.
Holmes famously dissented in the case of a German pacifist who was barred from entering the United States because she stated that as a pacifist she could not bear arms in case of war. After remarking that as she was female and over the age of 50 she would not be allowed to bear arms even if she wanted to, Holmes went on:
"I would suggest that the Quakers have done their share to make the country what it is, that many citizens agree with the applicant's belief [in pacifism], and that I had not supposed hitherto that we regretted our inability to expel them because they believe more than some of us do in the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount."
Holmes, who was a judge for nearly 50 years, wrote the above opinion when he was 87 years of age. It is to be hoped that the judiciary, the Law Society and the Bar Council will suitably mark the centenary in December. - Yours, etc.,
FRANK MacGABHANN, Charles Street West, Dublin 7.