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Louis D. Brandeis

Louis D. Brandeis Books

Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

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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 insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." [Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438 (1928) (dissenting)]”

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“The protection guaranteed by the Amendments is much broader in scope. The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness. They recognized the significance of man’s spiritual nature, of his feelings, and of his intellect. They knew that only a part of the pain, pleasure and satisfactions of life are to be found in material things. They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against the Government, the right to be let alone—the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men. To protect that right, every unjustifiable intrusion by the Government upon the privacy of the individual, whatever the means employed, must be deemed a violation of the Fourth Amendment. And the use, as evidence in a criminal proceeding, of facts ascertained by such intrusion must be deemed a violation of the Fifth. [Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928) (dissenting)]”

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Author:Louis D. Brandeis
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“The progress of science in furnishing the government with means of espionage is not likely to stop with wire tapping. Ways may some day be developed by which the government, without removing papers from secret drawers, can reproduce them in court, and by which it will be enabled to expose to a jury the most intimate occurrences of the home. Advances in the psychic and related sciences may bring means of exploring unexpressed beliefs, thoughts and emotions. 'That places the liberty of every man in the hands of every petty officer' was said by James Otis of much lesser intrusions than these.”

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“Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill it teaches the whole people by example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means - to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal - would bring terrible retributions.”

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“The goose that lays golden eggs has been considered a most valuable possession. But even more profitable is the privilege of taking the golden eggs laid by somebody else's goose. The investment bankers and their associates now enjoy that privilege.”

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Book:Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It
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“The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.”

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Author:Louis D. Brandeis
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“Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.”

GovernmentPurposeLibertyTeachCitizensProtectLibertarianPrivacyAmendmentsRulersFirst AmendmentGoverningFreedom And LibertyFree SocietyFreedom LibertyCivil LibertiesProperty RightsLimited GovernmentVigilanceRight To Bear ArmsBearing ArmsInsidiousLimiting GovernmentRights And FreedomsLibertarian PartyFounding Fathers GunLimited FreedomEncroachmentEternal VigilanceLiberty And JusticePrice Of FreedomSupreme Court JusticeLimiting FreedomAmendment 1Government PolicyFourth AmendmentGovernment And PoliticsFreedom To ReadGovernment PoliticsLaw CourtsControlling GovernmentLiberty And Justice For AllSecurity And FreedomPurpose Of GovernmentJustice TruthDivided GovernmentConflicting OpinionsWrits Of Assistance
Author:Louis D. Brandeis
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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.”

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Book:Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It
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