Amendments Quotes - Page 3

• The purpose that brought the fourteenth amendment into being was equality before the law, and equality, not separation, was written into the law.

  Robert Bork

  Equality, Law, Purpose

  Robert H. Bork (2009). “The Tempting of America”, p.82, Simon and Schuster

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• As a matter of traditional and sound constitutional doctrine, an amendment to the Constitution should be the last resort when all other measures have proved inadequate.

  Arlen Specter

  Sound, Doctrine, Matter

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• I'm tired of being considered some kind of criminal or dangerous throwback for no other reason than that I value, exercise, and defend my rights under the first ten Amendments to the United States Constitution.

  L. Neil Smith

  Tired, Exercise, Rights

  "I'm Tired (With Apologies to Pearl Bailey and Madeleine Kahn)". Second annual Liberty Round Table Conclave near Estes Park, Colorado, July 2, 1998.

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• Today's Constitution is a realistic document of freedom only because of several corrective amendments. Those amendments speak to a sense of decency and fairness that I and other Blacks cherish.

  Thurgood Marshall

  Freedom, Democracy, Today

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• Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

  James Madison

  Country, Gun, Government

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• The First and Fourteenth Amendments say that Congress and the States shall make "no law" which abridges freedom of speech or of the press. In order to sanction a system of censorship I would have to say that "no law" does not mean what it says, that "no law" is qualified to mean "some" laws. I cannot take this step.

  William O. Douglas

  Mean, Order, Law

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• History has shown us that, on extraordinarily rare occasions, it becomes necessary for the federal government to intervene on behalf of individuals whose 14th Amendment rights to legal due process and equal protection may be violated by a state.

  Michael K. Simpson

  Rights, Government, Rare Occasion

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• I think you may see again a rise at the federal government level for a - a call for the federal constitutional amendment, because people want to make sure that this definition of marriage remains secure, because after all, the family is the fundamental unit of government.

  Michele Bachmann

  Thinking, Government, People

  "Rep. Michele Bachmann Talks Earmarks, Obamacare and Gay Marriage; Sen. Kyl on Debt Talks". "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace, www.foxnews.com. June 26, 2011.

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• This provision (the 4th Amendment) speaks for itself. Its plain object is to secure the perfect enjoyment of that great right of the common law, that a man's house shall be his own castle, privileged against all civil and military intrusion.

  Joseph Story

  Military, Men, Law

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• Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Age, Ark

  1816 Letter to Samuel Kercheval, 12 Jul.

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• 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.

  Arthur Ochs Sulzberger

  Military, Reality, Firsts

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• Any test that turns on what is offensive to the community's standards is too loose, too capricious, too destructive of freedom of expression to be squared with the First Amendment. Under that test, juries can censor, suppress, and punish what they don't like, provided the matter relates to "sexual impurity" or has a tendency "to excite lustful thoughts." This is community censorship in one of its worst forms. It creates a regime where, in the battle between the literati and the Philistines, the Philistines are certain to win.

  William O. Douglas

  Winning, Expression, Community

  "Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. June 24, 1957.

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• First, the firearms industry has been around and has been respected for generations. They provide a valuable service and a highly desirable product to millions of sportsmen and supporters of those second amendment rights.

  Cliff Stearns

  Rights, Second Amendment, Generations

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• The First Amendment's language leaves no room for inference that abridgments of speech and press can be made just because they are slight. That Amendment provides, in simple words, that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." I read "no law . . . abridging" to mean no law abridging.

  Hugo Black

  Mean, Simple, Law

  Concurring opinion, Smith v. California, 361 U.S. 147, 1959.

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• So far, 44 States, or 88 percent of the States, have enacted laws providing that marriage shall consist of a union between a man and a woman. Only 75 percent of the States are required to approve a constitutional amendment.

  Jack Kingston

  Men, Law, Unions

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• It is better, so the Fourth Amendment teaches us, that the guilty sometimes go free than the citizens be subject to easy arrest.

  William O. Douglas

  Liberty, Citizens, Libertarian

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• We all have the right of freedom of speech under the First Amendment. We all don't have to agree with one another on our opinions. Everyone in my circle, that I run around with, we all feel the same about God, country, integrity and character.

  Luke Scott

  Running, Country, Integrity

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• So the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is out there preserving and fighting for, and sometimes winning and sometimes losing, the fight for First Amendment rights in comics and, more generally, for freedom of speech.

  Neil Gaiman

  Book, Fighting, Winning

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• The right really dominates radio, and it's amazing how much energy the right spends telling us that the press is slanted to the left when it really isn't. They want to shut other people up. They really don't understand the First Amendment.

  Roger Ebert

  People, Energy, Want

  Interview With Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. August 1, 2003.

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• I begin to feel like most Americans don't understand the First Amendment, don't understand the idea of freedom of speech, and don't understand that it's the responsibility of the citizen to speak out.

  Roger Ebert

  Responsibility, Speaks Out, Ideas

  Interview With Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. August 1, 2003.

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• Three conditions are necessary for Penance: contrition, which is sorrow for sin, together with a purpose of amendment; confession of sins without any omission; and satisfaction by means of good works.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Mean, Omission, Catholic

  Saint Thomas (Aquinas) (2000). “The Aquinas Catechism: A Simple Explanation of the Catholic Faith by the Church's Greatest Theologian”, p.86, Sophia Institute Press

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• We don't need a constitutional amendment for kids to pray.

  William J. Clinton

  Kids, Atheism, Needs

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• In the national debate about a serious issue, it is the expression of the minority's viewpoint that most demands the protection of the First Amendment. Whatever the better policy may be, a full and frank discussion of the costs and benefits of the attempt to prohibit the use of marijuana is far wiser than suppression of speech because it is unpopular.

  John Paul Stevens

  Marijuana, Expression, Issues

  Deborah Morse and the Juneau School Board, et al., Petitioners v. Joseph Frederick, 551 U.S. 393, 2007.

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• I do support a constitutional amendment on marriage between a man and a woman, but I would not be going into the states to overturn their state law.

  Michele Bachmann

  Men, Law, Support

  "Rep. Michele Bachmann Talks Earmarks, Obamacare and Gay Marriage; Sen. Kyl on Debt Talks". "Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace", www.foxnews.com. June 26, 2011.

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• The question about those aromatic advertisements that perfume companies are having stitched into magazines these days is this: under the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment, is smelling up the place a constitutionally protected form of expression?

  Calvin Trillin

  Expression, Magazines, Firsts

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