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First Amendment Quotes

Browse 387 quotes about First Amendment.

First Amendment Quotes

“Only the suppressed word is dangerous.”

Inspirational Dangerous Danger Censorship First Amendment Freedom To Read

Author:Ludwig Borne

“Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.”

Society Censorship Regimes Freedom Of Speech First Amendment Banned Censored Censoring Banned Books Censorship In Books Lack Of Confidence Book Banning Censoring Books Liberty Of Speech Supreme Confidence

Author:Potter Stewart

“First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end. The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought.”

Thinking Firsts Ends Government Law Danger Speech Justify Censorship Amendments Protected Free Speech Freedom Of Speech First Amendment Freedom Of Thought Amendment 1 Freedom To Read

Author:Anthony Kennedy

“It is called the First Amendment. ...Simple words marching in seried ranks. Compact, concise. To the point. Clear and pure. It's freedom's music.”

Firsts Simple Clear Pure Censorship Amendments First Amendment Compact Concise Simple Words

Author:Jack Valenti

“Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the state was to make men free to develop their faculties... They valued liberty both as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty... that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.”

“Thus if the First Amendment means anything in this field, it must allow protests even against the moral code that the standard of the day sets for the community. In other words, literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.”

Ifs Should Firsts Mean Literature Community Moral Fields Morality Standards Code Protest Amendments First Amendment Disobedience Civil Disobedience Moral Code

Author:William O. Douglas

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Law Religion Exercise Constitution Congress Separation Establishment First Amendment Church And State Separation Of Church And State Freedom Of Thought Civil Liberties Our Founding Fathers Religious Freedom Religious Belief Founding Fathers Christian Us Founding Fathers Freedom Of The Press Founding Fathers Religion Separation Between Church And State Founding Fathers Religious Freedom Of Religion Religion God Religious Liberty Constitution Of The United States Founding Fathers Anti Religion Founding Fathers Of America Founding America American Founding Fathers Founding Fathers Atheist Deism There Being No God Christianity From Founding Fathers Christian Atheist Religion Christian Us Constitution Religion And Government Anti Christian Christian Right Amendment 1 American Freedom Deist One Nation Under God Religious Truth Religious Bigotry Secular Society Liberty Of Speech Christian Freedom Christianity And Government Christian Schools Laws And Government Legitimate Power Establishment Clause

Book:The Virginia Report of 1799-1800: Touching the Alien and Sedition Laws; Together with the Virginia Resolutions of December 21, 1798, Including the Debate and Proceedings Thereon in the House of Delegates of Virginia and Other Documents Illustrative of the Report and Resolutions

Source: The Virginia Report of 1799-1800: Touching the Alien and Sedition Laws; Together with the Virginia Resolutions of December 21, 1798, Including the Debate and Proceedings Thereon in the House of Delegates of Virginia and Other Documents Illustrative of the Report and Resolutions

“Any time someone carries a picket sign in front of the White House, that is the First Amendment in action”

Firsts Action House White Fronts Carrie White House Amendments First Amendment

Author:Julian Bond

“The spirit of the First Amendment has been effectively repealed for conservative speech by a censorious, accusatory mob.”

Firsts Has Beens Spirit Politics Speech Conservative Amendments First Amendment

Book:Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right

Source: Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right

“[Liberals] are always accusing us of repressing their speech. I say let's do it. Let's repress them. ... Frankly, I'm not a big fan of the First Amendment.”

Firsts Bigs Fans Speech Democrat Amendments First Amendment Accusing

Author:Ann Coulter

“This is a serious problem that will lead to a serious debate about the first amendment.”

“I would bet there is no place in the United States where the First Amendment would survive intact.”

Firsts States United United States Amendments First Amendment

Author:Nat Hentoff

“I am committed to the First Amendment principles of religious freedom, tolerance, and diversity. Whether Mormon, Methodist, Jewish, or Muslim, Americans should be able to participate in their constitutional free exercise of religion. I do not think witchcraft is a religion, and I do not think it is in any way appropriate for the U.S. military to promote it.”

“That's in the First Amendment?”

Firsts Amendments First Amendment

Author:Christine O'Donnell

“The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.”

Firsts Doe Government Freedom Speech Obligation Amendments Tolerate First Amendment Inconvenience Inconvenient

Author:Anthony Kennedy

“[Confiscating a book and punishing its author] is a sign that one does not have a good case, or at least doesn't trust it enough to defend it with reasons and refute the objections. Some people even go so far as to consider prohibited or confiscated books to be the best ones of all, for the prohibition indicates that their authors wrote what they really thought rather than what they were supposed to think . . .”

People Thinking Doe Book Reason Enough Cases Being The Best Censorship First Amendment Prohibition Objections Freedom To Read

Author:Laszlo Radvanyi

“I don't want to be shut out from the truth. If they ban books, they might as well lock us away from the world.”

Ifs World Want Wells Book Might Censorship Locks First Amendment Bans Freedom To Read

Author:Rory Edwards

“Every new and successful example of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance.”

Source: James Madison's

“Whatever one's religion in his private life may be, for the officeholder, nothing takes precedence over his oath to uphold the Constitution and all its parts - including the First Amendment and the strict separation of church and state.”

Firsts May States Church Atheism Constitution Including Separation Presidential Amendments Strict Private Life First Amendment Church And State Oath Separation Of Church And State Precedence

Author:John F. Kennedy

“I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every newsman in the nation to reexamine his own standards, and to recognize the nature of our country's peril. In time of war, the government and the press have customarily joined in an effort based largely on self-discipline, to prevent unauthorized disclosures to the enemy. In time of "clear and present danger," the courts have held that even the privileged rights of the First Amendment must yield to the public's need for national security.”

“The Defense Department's plan to ban newspaper reporters from pool coverage of military operations is incredible. It reveals the administration to be out of touch with journalism, reality and the First Amendment.”

“I've always wondered if people who block each other from expressing their opinions do so because they have so little confidence in their own. To me, encountering an opposing point of view is a chance to gain a deeper understanding of the issues at stake and develop my own point of view. But the first thing you've got to do is you've got to let people speak and you've got to listen. And that's what the first amendment is all about. That's what really distinguishes this country from others.”

“First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully.”

Needs Firsts May War Rights Speech Presses Amendments First Amendment

Author:John Yoo

“Is any blogger out there saying anything—do they deserve First Amendment protection? These are the issues of our times.”

Firsts Issues Deserve Protection Our Time Amendments First Amendment Bloggers

Author:Lindsey Graham

“Once the government can demand of a publisher the names of the purchasers of his publication, the free press as we know it disappears. Then the spectre of a government agent will look over the shoulder of everyone who reads. ... Fear of criticism goes with every person into the bookstall. The subtle, imponderable pressures of the orthodox lay hold. Some will fear to read what is unpopular, what the powers-that-be dislike. ... fear will take the place of freedom in the libraries, book stores, and homes in the land.”

“Phil Robertson and his family are great citizens of the State of Louisiana. The politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with. I don’t agree with quite a bit of stuff I read in magazine interviews or see on TV. In fact, come to think of it, I find a good bit of it offensive. But I also acknowledge that this is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views. In fact, I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment. It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended.”

“Under the First Amendment there is no such thing as a false idea. However pernicious an opinion may seem, we depend for its correction not on the conscience of judges and juries but on the competition of other ideas.”

Firsts May Ideas Seems Opinion Judging Depends Conscience Competition Amendments First Amendment Jury Corrections Pernicious Judge And Jury

Author:Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

“At the time of the adoption of the constitution, and of the amendment to it, now under consideration [i.e., the First Amendment], the general, if not the universal sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the state, so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience, and the freedom of religious worship.”

Ifs Firsts States America Religious Christianity Rights Ought Worship Conscience Universal Constitution Encouragement Consideration Sentiments Amendments Adoption First Amendment

Author:Joseph Story

“After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision. By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment Freedom of Speech, so therefore Me, My Song, and All My Rowdy Friends are OUT OF HERE. It's been a great run.”

Firsts Made Running Song Reading Decision Speech Opening Mail Amendments Freedom Of Speech Pulling Toes First Amendment Espn Rowdy

Author:Hank Williams, Jr.

“Do the people of this land…desire to preserve those [liberties] protected by the First Amendment… If so, let them withstand all beginnings of encroachment. For the saddest epitaph which can be carved in memory of a vanquished liberty is that it was lost because its possessors failed to stretch for a saving hand while yet there was time.”

People Ifs Firsts Hands Desire Lost Memories Liberty Land Saving Preserves Amendments Protected First Amendment Saddest Epitaph Encroachment

Author:George Sutherland

“I'm really proud of this Supreme Court and the way they've been dealing with the issue of First Amendment political speech.”

Way Firsts Political Issues Proud Speech Court Supreme Amendments Supreme Court First Amendment Political Speeches

Author:Mitch McConnell

“The First Amendment was written by the Founders to protect the free exercise of Christianity.”

Firsts Christianity Written Exercise Protect Amendments Founders First Amendment

Author:Bryan Fischer

“I'm a crusader. I really believe in the First Amendment, and I use it fully, and I pay a price for that.”

Firsts Believe Use Pay Amendments First Amendment

Author:Al Goldstein

“Motion pictures are of course a different medium of expression than the public speech, the radio, the stage, the novel, or the magazine. But the First Amendment draws no distinction between the various methods of communicating ideas.”

“We don't have an Official Secrets Act in the United States, as other countries do. Under the First Amendment, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of association are more important than protecting secrets.”

Firsts Important Country States United Secret United States Speech Presses Officials Association Amendments Other Countries Freedom Of Speech First Amendment Freedom Of The Press

Author:Alan Dershowitz

“The First Amendment reads more like a dream than a law, and no other nation, so far as I know, has been crazy enough to include such a dream among its fundamental legal documents. I defend it because it has been so successful for two centuries in preserving our freedom and increasing our vitality, knowing that all arguments in support of it are certain to sound absurd.”

Knows Firsts Has Beens Two Enough Dream Law Certain Nations Sound Support Knowing Successful Crazy Century Argument Fundamentals Absurd Amendments Documents Vitality First Amendment

Author:Kurt Vonnegut

“And so popular culture raises issues that are very important, actually, in the country I think. You get issues of the First Amendment rights and issues of drug use, issues of AIDS, and things like that all arise naturally out of pop culture.”

Thinking Firsts Important Country Use Culture Literature Issues Rights Drug Raises Pops Aids Arise Amendments Pop Culture First Amendment Hiv Popular Culture Drug Use First Amendment Rights

Author:Kurt Loder

“If the Government is going to intrude upon the sacred ground of the First Amendment and tell its citizens that their exercise of protected speech could land them in jail, the law imposing such a penalty must clearly define the prohibited speech not only for the potential offender but also for the potential enforcer.”

Ifs Firsts Government Law Land Citizens Exercise Speech Sacred Jail Amendments Protected Penalties First Amendment Imposing Offenders

Author:Ronald L. Buckwalter

“Just as the strength of the Internet is chaos, so the strength of our liberty depends upon the chaos and cacophony of the unfettered speech the First Amendment protects.”

Firsts Liberty Depends Internet Protect Speech Chaos Amendments First Amendment Cacophony

Author:Stewart Dalzell

“There is a First Amendment right to speak in a encrypted way.... The right to speak P.G.P. is like the right to speak Navajo. The Government has no particular right to prevent you from speaking in a technical manner even if it is inconvenient for them to understand.”

Ifs Way Firsts Government Speak Particular Internet Amendments Free Speech First Amendment Inconvenient

Author:Eben Moglen

“Between being praised and persecuted condoned and condemned I might understandably have become bewildered particularly at the brand of ethics sometimes displayed by the staunch defenders of Christianity. But of one thing I am sure: I am sure that I fought not only for what I earnestly believed to be right but for the truest kind of religious freedom intended by the First Amendment the complete separation of church and state.”

“It just seems to be a human trait to want to protect the speech of people with whom we agree. For the First Amendment, that is not good enough. So it is really important that we protect First Amendment rights of people no matter what side of the line they are on.”

“Somewhere along the line we started misinterpreting the First Amendment and this idea of the freedom of speech the amendment grants us. We are free to speak as we choose without fear of prosecution or persecution, but we are not free to speak as we choose without consequence.”

Firsts Ideas Speak Lines Speech Consequence Grants Amendments Freedom Of Speech Persecution First Amendment Prosecution

Author:Roxane Gay

“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God.”

“However, they ignore the fact that the First Amendment is intended to protect only against government sanctions for exercising free speech rights, not private actions.”

Firsts Facts Government Action Interesting Rights Exercise Protect Speech Amendments Free Speech First Amendment Sanctions

Author:Ed Koch

“I have argued in favor of a reformulation of First Amendment law. The overriding goal of the reformulation is to reinvigorate processes of democratic deliberation, by ensuring greater attention to public issues and greater diversity of views.”

Firsts Law Process Goal Views Attention Issues Greater Diversity Democratic Favors Amendments First Amendment Deliberation

Author:Cass Sunstein

“The First Amendment exists to protect our religious liberty--to ensure that all Americans are able to seek out worship God with all our hearts, free from government coercion; it does not mandate scouring the public square to forcibly remove all acknowledgement s of the Almighty”

Firsts Heart Doe Government Able Religious Liberty Protect Worship Remove Squares Amendments Almighty First Amendment Coercion Mandates Worship God Acknowledgement Religious Liberty

Author:Ted Cruz

“We don't have the freedom of speech to talk about the weather. We have the first amendment so we can say some very controversial things.”

Firsts Speech Weather Amendments Freedom Of Speech First Amendment Controversial

Author:Ron Paul

“There is no question that under the Equal Rights Amendment there will be debates at times, indecision at times, litigation at times. Has anyone proposed that we rescind the First Amendment on free speech because there is too much litigation over it? Has anyone suggested the same for the Fourteenth Amendment I don't suppose there has ever been a constitutional amendment with so much litigation?”

Firsts Democracy Too Much Rights Equal Speech Debate Over It Amendments Free Speech Equal Rights First Amendment Indecision Constitutional Amendments Equal Rights Amendment Fourteenth Amendment

Author:Frances Farenthold

“The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity; but ... to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government.”