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Alan Dershowitz

Alan Dershowitz Quotes

Lawyer

Alan Dershowitz is a renowned American lawyer, author, and scholar, born on September 1, 1938. He is highly respected in the legal community and has served as a professor at Harvard Law School. Dershowitz has been involved in several high-profile cases as a defense attorney.

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Famous Alan Dershowitz Quotes

“In representing criminal defendants - especially guilty ones - it is often necessary to take the offensive against the government: to put the government on trial for its misconduct. In law, as in sports, the best defense is often a good offense. The courtroom oath - to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth - is applicable only to witnesses... because the American justice system is built on a foundation of not telling the whole entire truth.”

“It's a new phenomenon in America that states can now sue the national government and become a kind of check and balance on the excesses of the federal government.”

Kind States Government America Balance Checks Phenomenon Excess Federal Government

Author:Alan Dershowitz

“Students throughout the totalitarian world risk life and limb for freedom of expression, many American college students are demanding that big brother restrict their freedom of speech on campus. This demand for enhanced censorship is not emanating only from the usual corner - the know-nothing fundamentalist right - it is coming from the radical, and increasingly not-so-radical left as well.”

“Great research universities must insist on independence from government and on the exercise of academic freedom.”

Government Exercise Research Independence University Academic Academic Freedom

Author:Alan Dershowitz

“We all learn in school that the judicial, legislative and executive branches of government must check and balance each other. But other non state institutions must participate in this important system of checks and balances as well. These checking institutions include the academy, the media, religious institutions and NGOs.”

Wells Important States Government School Religious Media Balance Institutions Checks Branches Executives Academy Judicial Executive Branch Branches Of Government

Author:Alan Dershowitz

“Freedom of speech means freedom for those who you despise, and freedom to express the most despicable views. It also means that the government cannot pick and choose which expressions to authorize and which to prevent.”

Mean Government Views Expression Speech Picks Despise Freedom Of Speech Despicable Limiting Freedom Of Expression Freedom Of Speech And Expression

Author:Alan Dershowitz

“I charge my wealthy clients a lot and put 10 per cent in a fund which I use to pay the expenses of my poorer clients. When the government gangs up on the poor schnook in the street, someone has to stand up for him.”

Use Government Poor Pay Streets Fund Wealthy Expenses Cents Clients Gang

Author:Alan Dershowitz

“In the Pentagon Papers case, the government asserted in the Supreme Court that the publication of the material was a threat to national security. It turned out it was not a threat to U.S. security. But even if it had been, that doesn't mean that it couldn't be published.”

Ifs Mean Government Cases Security Materials Paper Court Threat Supreme Supreme Court National Security Papers Publication Pentagon

Author:Alan Dershowitz

“Individuals have the right to pick and choose which expressions to condemn, which to praise and which to say nothing about. Governments, however, must remain neutral as to the content of expression. And governments must protect the rights of all to express even the most despicable of views.”

Government Individual Views Rights Expression Protect Picks Praise Despicable

Author:Alan Dershowitz

“Rights are not self-evident. They're not unalienable. They are subject to modification just like anything else.”

Self Government Rights Subjects Evident Modification

Author:Alan Dershowitz

“We, the People of this country, have no unalienable rights... all our rights are subject to modification... the Constitution of the United States of America is nothing more than a piece of paper and... our government should not be restrained by the Constitution because our government can do good things for people.”

“It is the wall of separation between church and state . . . that is largely responsible for religion thriving in this country, as compared to those European countries in which church and state have been united, resulting in opposition to the church by those who disapprove of the government.”

Has Beens Country States Government Church United Wall Responsible Separation Opposition Church And State Separation Between Church And State European Countries

Book:Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence

Source: Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence