Hugo Black Quotes About First Amendment

Quotes about: First Amendment

• An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment.

  Hugo Black

  Religious, Political, Firsts

  NewYork Times Co. v. Sullivan (concurring opinion) (1964)

• The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.

  Hugo Black

  Country, Writing, Thinking

  "Floyd Abrams: Country Desperately Needs to Be Thinking About Free Speech". campus.asu.edu. September 12, 2017.

• I do not believe that it can be too often repeated that the freedoms of speech, press, petition and assembly guaranteed by the First Amendment must be accorded to the ideas we hate or sooner or later they will be denied to the ideas we cherish. The first banning of an association because it advocates hated ideas - whether that association be called a political party or not - marks a fateful moment in the history of a free country.

  Hugo Black

  Country, Hate, Party

  "Communist Party v. SACB, 367 U.S. 1". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. June 5, 1961.

• The First Amendment's language leaves no room for inference that abridgments of speech and press can be made just because they are slight. That Amendment provides, in simple words, that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." I read "no law . . . abridging" to mean no law abridging.

  Hugo Black

  Mean, Simple, Law

  Concurring opinion, Smith v. California, 361 U.S. 147, 1959.

• Compelling a man by law to pay his money to elect candidates or advocate law or doctrines he is against differs only in degree, if at all, from compelling him by law to speak for a candidate, a party, or a cause he is against. The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.

  Hugo Black

  Country, Party, Writing

• I am for the First Amendment from the first word to the last. I believe it means what it says.

  Hugo Black

  Believe, Mean, Government

• The "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.

  Hugo Black

  Mean, Government, Law

  "Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1". Writing for the court, 1947.

• The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.

  Hugo Black

  Religious, Wall, Church

  Writing for the court, Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 1947.

• The word 'security' is a broad, vague generality whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the First Amendment. The guarding of military and diplomatic secrets at the expense of informed representative government provides no real security.

  Hugo Black

  Military, Real, Government

  "New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713". Concurring opinion, 1971.

• The First Amendment provides the only kind of security system that can preserve a free government - one that leaves the way wide open for people to favor, discuss, advocate, or incite causes and doctrines however obnoxious and antagonistic such views may be to the rest of us.

  Hugo Black

  Security Systems, Government, Views

  Concurring opinion, Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298, 1957.

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