Remarks to the Members of the Supreme Court of Brazil.

Mr. Chief Justice, Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States of Brazil, and my Brazilian friends:

I have been privileged to call upon the President of the Brazilian Republic. I have just completed a meeting with the legislative body of this great country. Now it is my great privilege and honor to pay a call upon the third branch--equal branch of equal status in the Brazilian Government.

To have been invited once before this august body was in itself a great privilege and an honor. To have been invited back again, Mr. Chief Justice, is an honor that I consider almost unique.

It is my simple concept that the Supreme Court in a Federal Republic exists to make certain that the rule of law will flourish and will not be weakened by any processes that are not approved by the constitution and as interpreted by that Supreme Court.

In my country, the Supreme Court has attained a position in the minds of the average citizen of grandeur, almost of veneration.

I have been examining the history of your Supreme Court. I see the parallels, between its formation and its history, with our own. I know from the picture you have in the window that you give the same respect to the memory of John Marshall that we do. I have also heard of a great jurist of yours named Luis Barbosa who in your country and in his term took the same occasion as did John Marshall to assert the right, the absolute unchallenged right of the Supreme Court to place interpretation upon any law, and to determine whether or not it was in consonance with the Constitution.

Clothed with this kind of responsibility and with this kind of authority, the Supreme Court stands as a true guardian of justice for the individual. And I submit that the reason for republican or democratic government is to protect the individual in his rights which we--you and ourselves-- believe are his, because of the fact of his creation, because he has been created in the image of his God. I can see, therefore, that the decisions of such a body as this, its opinions, are more than mere decisions for application in a particular case and to make certain that the rights of a particular citizen have been protected, or that the law has not been allowed to go astray in its application in some other branch of the government. It is more important--the court is more important than merely to do this. As I see it, the court is also a teacher. Because the real strength of democracy is in the hearts and minds and the understandings of people, not merely the august members of this great body.

In my country, and I think it is possibly true in yours, a man who has been honored by being given a chair in this body is thereby removed from partisan politics. Partisan politicians do much to inform our public. Sometimes they merely try to influence. As I see it, the man now in this kind of position, with this authority, with this opportunity to study without bias, cannot merely influence, he can inform. And I say that in all forms of free government the only final force, the only final authority, is public opinion. And if it be informed public opinion, then in truth democracy is truly working. If the rule of law is to be substituted for the rule of the sword, if persuasion is to take the place of fighting on the battlefield, then the kind of public opinion that I speak of must be strong in all free nations.

And so I salute this body for the opportunity that belongs to each of you, because as a group we know that, just like in my own country, this institution is venerated. Your words carry weight. And your words will be heeded. Consequently, when you say we must substitute the rule of law for force, all will heed, all will help--which is all important.

So, Mr. Chief Justice, and Justices of the Supreme Court of Brazil, I come here to pay my respects, but those words are merely formalities by themselves. My visit has a far deeper meaning to me than mere formality. I do want to pay my respects to this court and to its functions, and what I think it can and will do in helping Brazil toward the destiny that is certain to belong to that nation as long as it lives in the institutions of freedom and pushes forward on the course that it is now pursuing.

Thank you very much indeed.