Home / Quotes / Quote by William O. Douglas

Quote by William O. Douglas

“This freedom of movement is the very essence of our free society, setting us apart. Like the right of assembly and the right of association, it often makes all other rights meaningful-knowing, studying, arguing, exploring, conversing, observing and even thinking. Once the right to travel is curtailed, all other rights suffer, just as when curfew or home detention is placed on a person.”

Quote by William O. Douglas

Author

William O. Douglas

William O. Douglas was a former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Born on October 16, 1898, and passing away on January 19, 1980, he is renowned for his contributions to constitutional interpretation. During his tenure on the Supreme Court, Douglas advocated for liberal judgments, particularly in the areas of the First and Fifth Amendments, and had a profound impact on the American legal and judicial system. more

You May Also Like

“All our work, our whole life is a matter of semantics, because words are the tools with which we work, the material out of which laws are made, out of which the Constitution was written. Everything depends on our understanding of them.”

Made Matter Whole Law Life Is Understanding Written Materials Depends Tools Constitution Whole Life Semantics

Author:Felix Frankfurter

“Fragile as reason is and limited as law is as the institutionalised medium of reason, that's all we have between us and the tyranny of mere will and the cruelty of unbridled, undisciplined feelings.”

Reason Feelings Law Mere Tyranny Cruelty Mediums Fragile Undisciplined

Author:Felix Frankfurter

“Appeal must be to an informed, civically militant electorate.”

Appeals Militant Electorate

Book:Essays in legal history in honor of Felix Frankfurter

Source: Essays in legal history in honor of Felix Frankfurter

“While it is not always profitable to analogize "fact" to "fiction," La Fontaine's fable of the crow, the cheese, and the fox demonstrates that there is a substantial difference between holding a piece of cheese in the beak and putting it in the stomach.”

Facts Differences Fiction Pieces Stomach Cheese Foxes Profitable Crow Fables Beaks

Author:Felix Frankfurter

“Without a free press there can be no free society. That is axiomatic. However, freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of a free society. The scope and nature of the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of the press are to be viewed and applied in that light.”

Mean Ends Light Presses Guarantees Scope Free Society Freedom Of The Press Free Press

Author:Felix Frankfurter

“Congress is, after all, not a body of laymen unfamiliar with the commonplaces of our law. This legislation was the formulation of the two Judiciary Committees, all of whom are lawyers, and the Congress is predominately a lawyers' body.”

Two Body Law Congress Lawyer Committees Legislation Commonplace Unfamiliar Judiciary Layman

Author:Felix Frankfurter

“One is entitled to say without qualification that the correlation between prior judicial experience and fitness for the Supreme Court is zero.”

Court Supreme Zero Entitled Supreme Court Judicial Qualifications Correlation

Author:Felix Frankfurter

“The words of the Constitution... are so unrestricted by their intrinsic meaning or by their history or by tradition or by prior decisions that they leave the individual Justice free, if indeed they do not compel him, to gather meaning not from reading the Constitution but from reading life.”

Ifs Reading Individual Justice Decision Tradition Constitution Reading Life

Author:Felix Frankfurter

“I came into the world a Jew, and although I did not live my life entirely as a Jew, I think it is fitting that I should leave as a Jew. I don't want to ... turn my back on a great and noble heritage.”

Thinking World Want Should Turns Jew Noble Heritage Living My Life Fitting

Author:Felix Frankfurter

“All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.”

Ends Dies Written Intelligent Exception Written Word

Book:Thoughts on Art and Life:

Source: Thoughts on Art and Life: