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Rights Quotes

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Rights Quotes

“I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it's a limit that's very seldom mentioned. It's the point where free speech begins to collide with the right to privacy. I don't think there are any other conditions to free speech. I've got a right to say and believe anything I please, but I haven't got a right to press it on anybody else. .... Nobody's got a right to be a nuisance to his neighbors.”

Thinking Believe I Believe Freedom Liberty Rights Conditions Media Havens Please Limits Speech Constitution Presses Neighbor Tolerance Privacy Free Speech Nuisance Collide Right To Privacy

Author:H. L. Mencken

“A theory deeply etched in our law [is that] a free society prefers to punish the few who abuse the rights of free speech after they break the law rather than to throttle them and all others beforehand.”

Law Black Justice Break Rights Theory Speech Abuse Free Speech Free Society Throttle

Author:Clarence Thomas

“There is no such thing as absolute free speech; there are only absolute rights of private property. Speech is circumscribed by private property rights. You may deliver a disquisition in my virtual or actual living room only if I permit you to so do.”

Ifs May Rooms Rights Speech Absolutes Property Permit Free Speech Living Room Private Property Property Rights

Author:Ilana Mercer

“In terms of political contributions, the free speech rights of corporations I dont think deserve the same protections as the free speech rights of real living, breathing, voting humans.”

Thinking Humans Real Political Term Rights Speech Deserve Protection Breathing Corporations Contribution Voting Free Speech

Author:Chris Coons

“Nobody needs to justify why they "need" a right: the burden of justification falls on the one seeking to infringe upon the right. But even if they did, you can't give away the rights of others because they're not useful to you. More simply, the majority cannot vote away the natural rights of the minority. Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”

Needs Giving Different Care Fall Natural Rights Speech Vote Majority Seeking Burden Don't Care Arguing Privacy Minorities Justify Justification Free Speech Natural Rights Right To Privacy

Author:Edward Snowden

“For the first 200 years of our nation's history, corporations were never defined by the courts as persons with free speech rights under the First Amendment. Only in recent years have we witnessed this corporate takeover of our First Amendment, culminating in the Citizens United ruling.”

Years Firsts Persons Nations United Rights Citizens Speech Court Defined Corporate Corporations Amendments Free Speech Ruling First Amendment Takeovers Citizens United

Author:John Bonifaz

“Over the centuries, we've moved on from Scripture to accumulate precepts of ethical, legal and moral philosophy. We've evolved a liberal consensus of what we regard as underpinnings of decent society, such as the idea that we don't approve of slavery or discrimination on the grounds of race or sex, that we respect free speech and the rights of the individual. All of these things that have become second nature to our morals today owe very little to religion, and mostly have been won in opposition to the teeth of religion.”

“Today, unfortunately, the right to vote seems to have become a partisan issue. Democrats seek to guarantee and expand voting rights. Republicans try to undermine and suppress voting rights.”

“A lot of people criticized me for speaking out, not long ago, about gay marriage. I could not remain silent any longer. It's the civil rights of our day. It's the issue of our day.”

“You know, my father was a great encouragement for me because he spoke out for women's rights, he spoke out for girl's education. And at that time I said that why should I wait for someone else, why should I be looking to the government, to the army that they would help us? Why don't I raise my voice, why don't we speak up for our rights?”

“The greater the importance to safeguarding the community from incitements to the overthrow of our institutions by force and violence, the more imperative is the need to preserve the constitutional rights of free speech, free press and free assembly in order to maintain the opportunity for free political discussion.”

“America comes with both rights and responsibilities. You have, for example, the right to free speech, but you have the responsibility to not yell 'fire' in a crowded theater. If you don't live up to that responsibility, you face certain consequences. It's a simple but effective formula. Unfortunately, tenured professors are completely insulated from it. They can scream fire in their classrooms all they want - and then hide behind their tenure if anyone questions them on it.”

Source: Cowards: What Politicians, Radicals, and the Media Refuse to Say

“Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason... Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.”

Source: Frederick Douglass: 100 Quotes on Bondage, Perseverance, and Redemption

“I actually think it is people like myself who have been fighting for our rights to free speech and I would like the right to defend my own right to free speech, not have soldiers doing it for me. I don't think I need soldiers.”

People Thinking Needs Has Beens Fighting My Own Rights Speech Soldier Free Speech

Author:Medea Benjamin

“We need a constitutional amendment to allow the legislature to control the so-called free speech rights of corporations.”

Needs Rights Speech Corporations Amendments Free Speech Legislature Constitutional Amendments

Author:Hank Johnson

“Then President [Barack] Obama went on to argue that a citizen`s Second Amendment rights can be restricted without being infringed, just like any other rights. There are limits on your free speech and on your right to privacy. But he also made another nuanced Constitutional argument, that the rights enshrined in the Second Amendment must be balanced alongside the others rights guaranteed by the Constitution.”

Made President Rights Citizens Limits Speech Argument Constitution Arguing Barack Privacy Amendments Balanced Free Speech Second Amendment President Barack Obama Right To Privacy

Author:Melissa Harris-Perry

“I do think if we take the power out of Washington and bring it back to the people, if we defend the Bill of Rights, free speech, religious liberty, the Second Amendment, privacy, if we repeal Obamacare, abolish the IRS, if we get Washington out of the way of job creators, I think we can transform this country.”