Amendments Quotes - Page 4

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  To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.

  George Mason

  Strength, Peace, Gun

  George Mason's address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1788.

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  The Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.

  Samuel Adams

  Gun, Strong Arms, People

  Debates of the Massachusetts Convention, 1788.

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• Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Law Courts, Government, Libertarian Party

  Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928)

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• If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.

  William J. Brennan

  Government, Expression, Ideas

  "Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397". 1989.

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• First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end. The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought.

  Anthony Kennedy

  Thinking, Government, Law

  Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234, 2002.

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• I'm not in the leftist controlled Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because of my political views, primarily my lifelong militant support of the NRA, the Second Amendment, and my belief that the only good bad guy is a dead bad guy.

  Ted Nugent

  Rocks, Views, Rock And Roll

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• There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters

  Daniel Webster

  Mean, Men, Gun

  Daniel Webster, James Rees (1839). “The beauties of the Hon. Daniel Webster: selected and arranged, with a critical essay on his genius and writings”, p.30

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• One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Love, Strength, Hope

  Thomas Jefferson (1830). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.331

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• Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

  Aristotle

  Philosophical, Tyrants, People

  Aristotle (1971). “On Man in the Universe”

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• Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.

  James Madison

  Ambition, Simple, Government

  James Madison, John Jay (1847). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.192

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• The Fifth Amendment is an old friend and a good friend, one of the great landmarks in men's struggle to be free of tyranny, to be decent and civilized.

  William O. Douglas

  Friendship, Struggle, Good Friend

  "An Almanac of Liberty". Book by William O. Douglas, 1954.

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• Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Freedom, Independent, Men

  Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928)

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• When I started law school I was shocked to learn that our legal system traditionally had the man as the head and master of the family. As late as the '70s and '80s when we were fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment, states like Louisiana still had a head and master law.

  Patricia Ireland

  School, Fighting, Men

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• It just seems to be a human trait to want to protect the speech of people with whom we agree. For the First Amendment, that is not good enough. So it is really important that we protect First Amendment rights of people no matter what side of the line they are on.

  Floyd Abrams

  Rights, People, Not Good Enough

  "First Amendment Attorney Floyd Abrams Talks with CFIF’s Corporate Counsel About Three Decades of Free Speech". "Your Turn - Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense" with Renee Giachino, www.cfif.org. une 15, 2005.

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• I'm knocking our pitiful, pathetic lawmakers. And I thank God that President Bush has stated, we need a Constitutional amendment that states that marriage is between a man and a woman.

  Jimmy Swaggart

  Marriage, Men, Thank God

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• The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.

  Anthony Kennedy

  Freedom, Government, Doe

  International Society for Krishna Consciousness v. Lee, 505 U.S. 672, caselaw.lp.findlaw.com. June 26, 1992.

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• The 4th Amendment and the personal rights it secures have a long history. At the very core stands the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.

  Potter Stewart

  Home, Men, Rights

  "Silverman v. United States, 365 U.S. 511". 1961.

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• If were going to change the laws, lets change them in ways which makes it easier to catch criminals, and yet at the same time protect the Second Amendment rights of our law-abiding citizens.

  John Dingell

  Rights, Law, Second Amendment

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• In Cyberspace, the First Amendment is a local ordinance.

  John Perry Barlow

  Space, Politics, Firsts

  "Can't censor the internet? Tell that to your compliant ISP" by John Naughton, www.theguardian.com. August 19, 2006.

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• A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. - Second Amendment to the Constitution An armed society is a polite society.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Gun, Libertarian Party, Assault Weapons

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• Statutes authorizing unreasonable searches were the core concern of the framers of the 4th Amendment.

  Sandra Day O'Connor

  History, Framers, Concern

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• As a matter of history, the Fourteenth Amendment was not understood to ban segregation on the basis of race.

  Cass Sunstein

  Race, Matter, Corny

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• I oppose a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.

  Ed Case

  Pride, Gay, Gay Marriage

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• Any time someone carries a picket sign in front of the White House, that is the First Amendment in action

  Julian Bond

  White, House, Firsts

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• Unfortunately a Constitutional amendment that would have empowered Congress to make desecration of the United States flag illegal failed to pass by one vote.

  Kenny Marchant

  Empowering, United States, Flags

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