Abe Fortas

Name: Fortson v. Morris — Dissent
Author: Abe Fortas

Fortson v. Morris — Dissent

Summary

“Fortson v. Morris — Dissent”, is a work by Abe Fortas. It explores elements such as vote, legislature and candidate.

Quotes from Fortson v. Morris — Dissent (Abe Fortas)

Abe Fortas, Fortson v. Morris — Dissent

“ The integrity of the vote is undermined and destroyed by any scheme which can result in the selection of a person as Governor who receives the lesser number of popular votes. If the voting right is to mean anything, it certainly must be protected against the possibility that victory will go to the loser.
2. It distorts reality to say, as the majority here do, that this election is to be scrubbed and ignored, and to proceed as if we were dealing with a situation in which Georgia's Constitution merely provided for the selection of Governor by the legislature. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Abe Fortas, Fortson v. Morris — Dissent

“ A vote is not an object of art. It is the sacred and most important instrument of democracy and of freedom. In simple terms, the vote is meaningless-it no longer serves the purpose of the democratic society-unless it, taken in the aggregate with the votes of other citizens, results in effecting the will of those citizens provided that they are more numerous than those of differing views. That is the meaning and effect of the great constitutional decisions of this Court. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Abe Fortas, Fortson v. Morris — Dissent

“ Unless the Court is overruling Gray v. Sanders, it presumably would not validate a Georgia constitutional provision which said that if a majority of the votes are not cast for one candidate, they will be recomputed on a county unit basis which is not proportionate to the voting population, and the result of that recomputation would determine the winner. It is no less a denial of equal protection of the laws for the result of an election to be determined, not by the voters, but by the legislature on a basis which is not related to the votes cast. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Abe Fortas, Fortson v. Morris — Dissent

“ If it were the intent of the Constitution to scrub the popular election and to cause selection by the legislature as an independent process, the legislature would not be bound to select from the two who received at the polls the highest number of votes. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Abe Fortas, Fortson v. Morris — Dissent

“ The candidate receiving more votes than any other must receive the office unless he is disqualified on some constitutionally permissible basis or unless, in a runoff or some other type of election, the people properly and regularly, by their votes, decide differently. 'The right to vote is too important in our free society to be stripped of judicial protection' [6] by any other interpretation of our Constitution. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Abe Fortas, Fortson v. Morris — Dissent

“ If a State can validly provide that the result at the polls can be disregarded and the outcome removed from democratic processes where no candidate for Governor receives a majority, there is no reason why the same rule cannot be applied to legislators. Moreover, the Court today announces in an offhand manner, as a side effect of today's decision, without adequate argument or consideration, that a State may today, as some States did long ago, provide that its Governor shall be selected by its legislature in total disregard of the voters. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Abe Fortas, Fortson v. Morris — Dissent

“ They represent, one has been led to believe, an acknowledgment that the republican form of government guaranteed by the Constitution, read in light of the General Welfare Clause, the guaranties of equal protection of the laws and the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, requires something more than an adherence to form. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Abe Fortas, Fortson v. Morris — Dissent

“ The legislature would be given free choice. As my Brother DOUGLAS' opinion shows, the Constitution attempts something quite different. It purports to give the legislature power to complete the process begun at the polls-to cast aside the vote of the electorate and award the office to the winner or the loser of the popular election, as it may see fit. ”

Abe Fortas

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Quotes from Fortson v. Morris — Dissent (Abe Fortas)

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