Amendments Quotes - Page 8

• It's either the Amendment or this Confederate peace. You cannot have both.

  David Strathairn

  Confederate

  "Fictional character: William Seward". "Lincoln", 2012.

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• The worst thing that ever happened to America was the 19th Amendment.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  America, Worst, Happened

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• Get rid of the guns. We had the Second Amendment that said you have the right to bear arms. I haven't seen the British really coming by my house looking for it. And besides, the right to bear arms is not an absolute right anyway, as New York's Sullivan Law proves. We talk about ourselves as a violent society, and some of that is right and some of it is claptrap. But I think if you took away the guns, and I mean really take away the guns, not what Congress is doing now, you would see that violent society diminish considerably.

  Roger Rosenblatt

  New York, Mean, Thinking

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• If the Constitution was a movie, the Preamble would be the trailer, the First Amendment the establishing shot, the 13th the crowd pleaser and the 14th the ultimate hero scene.

  Henry Rollins

  Hero, Would Be, Crowds

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• The functionaries of public power rarely strengthen in their dispositions to abridge it, and an unorganized call for timely amendment is not likely to prevail against an organized opposition to it. We are always told that things are going on well; Why change them? 'Chi sta bene, no si mueve,' said the Italian, 'let him who stands well, stand still.' This is true; and I verily believe they would go on well with us under an absolute monarch, while our present character remains, of order, industry and love of peace, and restrained as he would be, by the proper spirit of the people.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Believe, Character, Italian

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.209, Cambridge University Press

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• Statutes that curtail her abortion choice are disturbingly suggestive of involuntary servitude, prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment, in that forced pregnancy requires a woman to provide continuous physical service to the fetus in order to further the state's asserted interest.

  Dawn Johnsen

  Pregnancy, Order, Choices

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• If we set the precedent of limiting the First Amendment, in order to protect the sensibilities of those who are offended by flag burning, what will we say the next time someone is offended by some other minority view, or by some other person's exercise of the freedom the Constitution is supposed to protect?

  Edward Kennedy

  Exercise, Views, Order

  Constituent letter, 1997.

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• If newsmen do not tell the truth as they see it because it might make waves, or if their bosses decide something should or should not be broadcast because of Washington or Main Street consequences, we have dishonored ourselves and we have lost the First Amendment by default.

  Richard S. Salant

  America, Boss, Might

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• What I put forward was an amendment that would have temporarily halted immigration from high-risk terrorist countries, but would have started it up, but I wanted them to go through Global Entry, which is a program where we do background checks.

  Ted Cruz

  Country, Risk, Immigration

  Source: cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com

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• I call myself a radical conservative. What's that? Well, let's analyze it. Go to the dictionary. Radical: One who gets to the roots of things. And I'm a conservative because I want to conserve the green of the grass, the potability of drinking water, the first amendment of the Constitution and whatever sanity we have left.

  Studs Terkel

  Drinking, Roots, Water

  "What I've Learned: Studs Terkel" by Cal Fussman, www.esquire.com. November 6, 2008.

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• I don't hate the government. I don't think the Second Amendment is being infringed upon.

  Henry Rollins

  Hate, Thinking, Government

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• Of course same sex marriage is constitutional! The right to be yourself, to pursue life, liberty, and property, is protected several ways over several amendments. John Boehner should know this.

  Henry Rollins

  Being Yourself, Sex, Liberty

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• Bush proposed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Some saw the move as an attempt to preserve traditional values, while others saw it as a cynical ploy to ensure that Vice President... Cheney will never have to pay for his gay daughter's wedding.

  Jon Stewart

  Daughter, Moving, Gay

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• Some may more quietly commemorate the suffering, struggle, and sacrifice that has triumphed over much of what was wrong with the original document, and observe the anniversary with hopes not realized and promises not fulfilled. I plan to celebrate the bicentennial of the Constitution as a living document, including the Bill of Rights and the other amendments protecting individual freedoms and human rights.

  Thurgood Marshall

  Struggle, Sacrifice, Rights

  Thurgood Marshall, Mark V. Tushnet (2001). “Thurgood Marshall: His Speeches, Writings, Arguments, Opinions, and Reminiscences”, p.285, Chicago Review Press

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• Whatever right the Second Amendment protects is not as important as it was 200 years ago... The government should deconstitutionalize the subject by repealing the embarrasing Amendment.

  George Will

  Government, Years, Important

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• To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today.

  Thurgood Marshall

  War, Rights, Government

  "RNC uses Thurgood Marshall speech to attack Supreme Court nominee Kagan" by Russell Berman, thehill.com. May 11, 2010.

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• I have little patience with people who take the Bill of Rights for granted. The Bill of Rights, contained in the first ten amendments to the Constitution, is every American's guarantee of freedom.

  Harry S. Truman

  Rights, People, Guarantees

  Harry S. Truman (1956). “Memoirs”

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• I think it is appropriate that we pay tribute to this great constitutional principle which is enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution: the principle of religious independence, of religious liberty, of religious freedom.

  John F. Kennedy

  Religious, Thinking, Independence

  "John F. Kennedy: 1961 : containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of the president, January 20 to December 31, 1961" by John F. Kennedy, Washington: Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1962.

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• Some men look at Constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in Government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Book, Reading

  1816 Letter to Samuel Kercheval, 12 Jul.

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• I'm not interested in censorship. I like the First Amendment very much.

  Henry Rollins

  Firsts, Censorship, First Amendment

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• While the machinery of law enforcement and indeed the nature of crime itself have changed dramatically since the Fourth Amendment became part of the Nation's fundamental law in 1791, what the Framers understood then remains true today - that the task of combating crime and convicting the guilty will in every era seem of such critical and pressing concern that we may be lured by the temptations of expediency into forsaking our commitment to protecting individual liberty and privacy.

  William J. Brennan

  Commitment, Law, Temptation

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• Under the privilege of the First Amendment many, many ridiculous things are said.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Firsts, Civil Rights, Privilege

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• For an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Gun, Men, Strong Arms

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• Every public elementary school ought to welcome Good News Clubs. Parents appreciate them; children love them; and the First Amendment protects them. The First Amendment requires that similar groups be provided with equal treatment. Religious speech is not a disability. It is our preeminent freedom.

  Mathew Staver

  Religious, Children, School

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• The men who wrote the First Amendment religion clause did not view paid legislative chaplains and opening prayers as a violation of that amendment... the practice of opening sessions with prayer has continued without interruption ever since that early session of Congress. It can hardly be thought that in the same week the members of the first Congress voted to appoint and pay a chaplain for each House and also voted to approve the draft of the First Amendment... (that) they intended to forbid what they had just declared acceptable.

  Warren E. Burger

  Prayer, Men, Views

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