Equal Protection Quotes

• All marriages are same sex marriages. You get married and every night, it's the same sex.

  Bill Maher

  Funny, Sex, Humorous

  Bill Maher (2006). “New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer”, p.113, Rodale

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• All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, Patriotic, Equality

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

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• All distinctions of birth or of rank have been abolished. All citizens, whether native or adopted, are placed upon terms of precise equality. All are entitled to equal rights and equal protection.

  James K. Polk

  Rights, Citizens, Birth

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• The guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color. If both are not accorded the same protection, then it is not equal.

  Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

  Mean, Equality, Color

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• As members of the judiciary tasked with intervening to carry out the guarantee of equal protection, we ought not sit back and wish away, rather than confront, the racial inequality that exists in our society.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Wish, Guarantees, Our Society

  "Michigan's ban on affirmative action upheld by Supreme Court" By Bill Mears, www.cnn.com. April 23, 2014.

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• Laws that require equal protections reinforce the moral imperative of equality.

  Hillary Clinton

  Law, Lgbt, Moral

  International Human Rights Day Address at Palais des Nations, delivered 6 December 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

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• As Harry Blackmun said when he wrote Roe v. Wade, `Once a child is born, the child has basic constitutional rights: due process, equal protection of the laws.'

  Nat Hentoff

  Children, Law, Rights

  Source: thedailyhatch.org

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• America is the promised land, because each generation bequeathed to its children a promise, a promise that they might not come to enjoy but which they fully expected their offspring to fulfill. So the words 'all men are created equal' took a life of its own, ultimately destined to end slavery and enfranchise women. And the words 'equal protection' and 'due process' inevitably led to the end of the words 'separate but equal,' ensuring that the walls of segregation would crumble, whether at the lunch counter or at the voting booth.

  Joe Biden

  Children, Wall, Men

  Joe Biden (2007). “Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics”, p.192, Random House

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• My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron.

  Edmund Burke

  Strong, Names, Iron

  Edmund Burke (2005). “Burke, Select Works”, p.231, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

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• The equal protection standard of the constitution has one clear and central meaning - it absolutely prohibits invidious [repugnant] discrimination by government...Under our Constitution, any official action that treats a person differently on account of his race or ethnic origin is inherently [by nature] suspect and presumptively [probably] invalid...Under the Constitution we have, one practice in which government may never engage in the practice of racism - not even "temporarily" and not even as an "experiment."

  Potter Stewart

  Race, Government, Practice

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• Lately the First Amendment has been interpreted to deny equal protection of the law to those who believe in God. The Constitution established freedom for religion, not freedom from religion!

  Jack Kemp

  Christian, Religious, Believe

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• We must have our freedom now. We must have the right to vote. We must have equal protection of the law.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Law, Vote, Protection

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• What is the American dream? The American dream is one big tent. One big tent. And on that big tent you have four basic promises: equal protection under the law, equal opportunity, equal access, and fair share.

  Jesse Jackson

  Dream, Opportunity, Law

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• Full participation in government and society has been a basic right of the country symbolizing the full citizenship and equal protection of all.

  Charles Rangel

  Country, Government, Citizenship

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• The First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights in the United States Constitution were being violated in Albany again and again - freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the equal protection of the laws - I could count at least 30 such violations. Yet the president, sworn to uphold the Constitution, and all the agencies of the United States government at his disposal, were nowhere to be seen.

  Howard Zinn

  Agency, Rights, Government

  "You Can't Be Neutral on A Moving Train". Book by Howard Zinn (Ch. 4: "My Name is Freedom": Albany, Georgia), 1994.

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• If some individuals contribute to general social deterioration by overproducing children, and if the need is compelling, they can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility — just as they can be required to exercise responsibility in their resource-consumption patterns — providing they are not denied equal protection

  John Holdren

  Children, Responsibility, Exercise

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• Ultimately, I think the Equal Protection Clause does guarantee same-sex marriage in all fifty states.

  Barack Obama

  Sex, Pride, Gay

  "The Obama Brief" By Jeffrey Toobin, www.newyorker.com. October 27, 2014.

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• It wouldn't be fair to say that conservatives cherish property the way liberals cherish equality. But it would be fair to say that the takings clause is the conservatives recipe for judicial activism just as they say liberals have misused the equal protection clause.

  Michael Kinsley

  Equality, Would Be, Recipes

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• When a politician like Marco Rubio is willing to sacrifice his career defining immigration reform legislation solely to insure that gays and lesbians are denied equal protection under the law, we have to admit that we’re under attack. This is not pragmatic politics at work. These are the policies of bias, exclusion and unfairness.

  Harvey Fierstein

  Sacrifice, Gay, Law

  "Don’t End the War on Terror" by Harvey Fierstein, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 28, 2013.

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• It's time to recognize that under the equal protection clause of the United States [Constitution], same-sex couples should have the same rights as anybody else.

  Barack Obama

  Sex, Couple, Should Have

  "Obama: Axelrod 'mixing up' gay marriage stance" By Jeremy Diamond, Eric Bradner, www.cnn.com. February 11, 2015.

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• There is no proportional representation requirement in the Equal Protection Clause

  Cass Sunstein

  Requirements, Protection, Equal

  "What Clause? Where?" by Bradford Plumer, www.motherjones.com. October 20, 2005.

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• History has shown us that, on extraordinarily rare occasions, it becomes necessary for the federal government to intervene on behalf of individuals whose 14th Amendment rights to legal due process and equal protection may be violated by a state.

  Michael K. Simpson

  Rights, Government, Rare Occasion

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• When the 14th Amendment, equal protection clause was enacted, the galleries in the Senate were segregated. Now we have integration.

  Arlen Specter

  Protection, Gallery, Amendments

  "Interview with Senator Arnold Specter". Interview with Bob Schieffer, www.realclearpolitics.com. May 3, 2009.

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• There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.

  Andrew Jackson

  Rain, 4th Of July, Blessing

  Veto Message on Bank Bill, 10 July 1832

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• There are a few instances that arise in the unique context of domestic equal-protection challenges to governmental actions that are facially neutral but produce substantial discriminatory impacts on groups of people, based on such suspect classifications as race, nationality, ethnic origin, etc. This doctrine has never been used in foreign affairs.

  David B. Rivkin

  Unique, Impact, Race

  "Is President Trump’s executive order constitutional?" by David B. Rivkin Jr., Karen Tumlin and James Downie, davidbrivkin.com. February 6, 2017.

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