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Commonwealth Museum   Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin
Commonwealth Museum Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin

“Faith in the Eventual Supremacy of Reason” Hope Expressed by Judge Learned Hand


Judge Learned Hand. Although never nominated to the Supreme Court, U. S. Appeals Court Judge Learned Hand’s opinions are often cited.

Judge Learned Hand. Although never nominated to the Supreme Court, U. S. Appeals Court Judge Learned Hand’s opinions are often cited.
- Harvard University Library

Then and Now
 In 1952, at the height of the Cold War, Judge Learned Hand warned against political polarization in a New York University speech:

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"I believe that the community is already in process of dissolution where each man begins to eye his neighbor as a possible enemy, where non-conformity with the accepted creed, political as well as religious, is a mark of disaffection; where denunciation, without specification or backing takes the place of evidence, where orthodoxy chokes freedom of dissent, where faith in the eventual supremacy of reason has become so timid that we dare not enter our convictions in the open lists, to win or lose."