Natural Legal Guardians of Judicial Independence and Academic Freedom
![handle is hein.journals/flr77 and id is 1463 raw text is: NATURAL LEGAL GUARDIANS OF
JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE AND ACADEMIC
FREEDOM
Robin D. Barnes*
INTRODUCTION
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place
where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our
Founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our
democracy, tonight is your answer.
It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches
in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours
and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they
believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that
difference.
It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and
Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay,
straight, disabled and not disabled-Americans who sent a message to the
world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a
collection of red states and blue states; we are and always will be the
United States of America.
. . . [T]o all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from
parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the
forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is
shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those ...
who would tear the world down: we will defeat you. To those who seek
peace and security: we support you. And to all those who have wondered
if America's beacon still burns as bright: tonight we proved once more
that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms
or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals-
democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.'
* Robin D. Barnes, Visiting Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law;
LL.M., University of Wisconsin School of Law. Thanks to the Symposium participants and
Lucinda Jacobs.
1. Barack Obama, President-Elect, Victory Speech (Nov. 4, 2008), available at
http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/speeches/obama-victory-speech.htmi.
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Natural Legal Guardians of Judicial Independence and Academic Freedom
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