Amendments Quotes - Page 6

• President Bush has a record of cutting taxes, has provided a prescription drug benefit for seniors, has upheld the Second Amendment and remains committed to stopping liberal activists judges who are redefining marriage.

  Bill Shuster

  Marriage, Senior, Cutting

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• The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered Eastern peoples to have arms. History teaches that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.

  Adolf Hitler

  Mistake, Race, Gun Control

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• It is not certain that with this aid alone [possession of arms], they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to posses the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will, and direct the national force; and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned, in spite of the legions which surround it.

  James Madison

  Government, Europe, People

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• Those who won our independence... valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Happiness, Courage, Mean

  Louis D. Brandeis (2009). “Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It”, p.10, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The rights of conscience, of bearing arms, of changing the government, are declared to be inherent in the people.

  Fisher Ames

  Gun, Rights, Government

  Fisher Ames, John Thornton Kirkland (1854). “Works of Fisher Ames: With a Selection from His Speeches and Correspondence”, p.54, Burt Franklin

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• Whereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.

  Richard Henry Lee

  Men, Practice, People

  "An Additional Number of Letters to the Republican". Letters by the Federal Farmer (pseudonym of Richard Henry Lee), Letter XVIII, teachingamericanhistory.org. January 25, 1988.

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• I say that the Second Amendment doesn't allow for exceptions - or else it would have read that the right "to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, unless Congress chooses otherwise." And because there are no exceptions, I disagree with my fellow panelists who say the existing gun laws should be enforced. Those laws are unconstitutional [and] wrong - because they put you at a disadvantage to armed criminals, to whom the laws are no inconvenience.

  Harry Browne

  Gun, Law, Political

  Second Amendment rally in Arkansas, August 8, 2000.

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• I propose a Constitutional Amendment providing that, if any public official, elected or appointed, at any level of government, is caught lying to any member of the public for any reason, the punishment shall be death by public hanging.

  L. Neil Smith

  Lying, Government, Sea

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• No Congress ever has seen fit to amend the Constitution to address any issue related to marriage. No Constitutional Amendment was needed to ban polygamy or bigamy, nor was a Constitutional Amendment needed to set a uniform age of majority to ban child marriages.

  Judy Biggert

  Children, Issues, Age

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• 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)

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• 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.

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• The First Amendment makes confidence in the common sense of our people and in the maturity of their judgement the great postulate of our democracy.

  William O. Douglas

  Maturity, People, Common Sense

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• 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.

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• The US constitution's First Amendment rights only cover Americans, but I believe that in a democracy the competition of ideas and free speech should combat beliefs that it does not agree with - more speech and debate, not censorship.

  Joichi Ito

  Believe, Ideas, Rights

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• Our 1 million members across the country will be watching closely to see if the video game industry hides behind a First Amendment veil in order to exploit children for the sake of corporate profit.

  Connie Sellecca

  Country, Children, Order

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• Phil Robertson and his family are great citizens of the State of Louisiana. The politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with. I don’t agree with quite a bit of stuff I read in magazine interviews or see on TV. In fact, come to think of it, I find a good bit of it offensive. But I also acknowledge that this is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views. In fact, I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment. It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended.

  Bobby Jindal

  Country, Thinking, Views

  FaceBook post by Bobby Jindal from Dec 19, 2013

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• Can any of you seriously say the Bill of Rights could get through Congress today? It wouldn't even get out of committee.

  F. Lee Bailey

  Government, Usa, Rights

  "Newsweek" Magazine, April 17, 1967.

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• When the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British parliament was advised by an artful man [Sir William Keith], who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people. That it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them. But that they should not do it openly; but to weaken them and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia.

  George Mason

  Men, Gun, America

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

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• A strong body makes the mind strong.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Strong, Exercise, Gun

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States”, p.287

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• The 21st Amendment gives the states the right to decide what the drinking ages should be and other aspects relative to alcoholic beverages, and I support that. As a United States senator, I want to weigh in - this is not my agenda.

  Pete Coors

  Drinking, Giving, Support

  Meet the Press Debate, www.nbcnews.com. October 10, 2004.

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• The dominant purpose of the First Amendment was to prohibit the widespread practice of government suppression of embarrassing information.

  William O. Douglas

  Government, Practice, Freedom Of Speech

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• With that in mind and in celebration of National Prayer Day, today I have proposed in the House of Representatives a Constitutional Amendment that would restore voluntary prayer in our Nation's schools.

  Nick Rahall

  Prayer, School, House

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• Laws protecting the United States flag do not cut away at the freedom of speech guaranteed in the First Amendment... Congress made this position clear upon passage of the Flag Protection Act of 1989, which prohibited desecration of the flag.

  Larry Craig

  Cutting, Law, Freedom Of Speech

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• We seek a constitutional amendment to permit voluntary school prayer. God should never have been expelled from America's classrooms in the first place.

  Ronald Reagan

  Prayer, School, America

  Ronald Reagan (1993). “Actor, Ideologue, Politician: The Public Speeches of Ronald Reagan”, Greenwood Publishing Group

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• They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Happiness, Peace

  Benjamin Franklin, William-Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818”, p.270

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