Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [361-380] of 839 Constitution quotesConstitution QuotesConstitution Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Emergency does not create power. Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved. The Constitution was adopted in a period of grave emergency. Its grants of power to the federal government and its limitations of the power of the States were determined in the light of emergency, and they are not altered by emergency.~ Justice Charles Evans Hughes The liberty of the press is not confined to newspapers and periodicals. It necessarily embraces pamphlets and leaflets. These indeed have been historic weapons in the defense of liberty, as the pamphlets of Thomas Paine and others in our history abundantly attest.~ Justice Charles Evans Hughes 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.~ Justice Charles Evans Hughes The Constitution is what the judges say it is.~ Justice Charles Evans Hughes Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. This is not to say that firearms should not be very carefully used and that definite safety rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, and one more safeguard against tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.~ Hubert H. Humphrey I believe the State exists for the development of individual lives, not individuals for the development of the state.~ Julian Huxley It is precisely for the protection of the minority that constitutional limitations exist. Majorities need no such protection. They can take care of themselves.~ Illinois Supreme Court Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself.~ Robert G. Ingersoll It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America.~ Molly Ivins It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.~ Andrew Jackson If Congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given to be used by themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations.~ Andrew Jackson Particularly when the war power is invoked to do things to the liberties of people, or to their property or economy that only indirectly affect conduct of the war and do not relate to the engagement of the war itself, the constitutional basis should be scrutinized with care. ... I would not be willing to hold that war powers may be indefinitely prolonged merely by keeping legally alive a state of war that had in fact ended. I cannot accept the argument that war powers last as long as the effects and consequences of war for if so they are permanent -- as permanent as the war debts.~ Justice Robert H. Jackson The day that this country ceases to be free for irreligion, it will cease to be free for religion.~ Justice Robert H. Jackson [T]he arguments that have been addressed to us lead me to utter more explicit misgivings about war powers than the Court has done. The Government asserts no constitutional basis for this legislation other than this vague, undefined and undefinable 'war power.' No one will question that this power is the most dangerous one to free government in the whole catalogue of powers. It is usually invoked in haste and excitement, when calm legislative consideration of constitutional limitation is difficult. It is executed in a time of patriotic fervor that makes moderation unpopular. And, worst of all, it is interpreted by judges under the influence of the same passions and pressures. Always, as in this case, the Government urges hasty decision to forestall some emergency or serve some purpose and pleads that paralysis will result if its claims to power are denied or their confirmation delayed.~ Justice Robert H. Jackson It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.~ Justice Robert H. Jackson The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.~ Justice Robert H. Jackson We are not final because we are infallible, but infallible only because we are final.~ Justice Robert H. Jackson If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.~ Justice Robert H. Jackson The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is danger that, if the court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.~ Justice Robert H. Jackson The priceless heritage of our society is the unrestricted constitutional right of each member to think as he will. Thought control is a copyright of totalitarianism, and we have no claim to it.~ Justice Robert H. 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