Civil Liberties Quotes - Page 8

• America stands strongest in challenging terrorism when we do not give up an inch of our civil liberties.

  Dennis Kucinich

  Giving Up, America, Challenges

  Formal Announcement Speech, Cleveland, Ohio, www.4president.org. October 13, 2003.

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• The guarantees of civil liberty are but guarantees of freedom of the human mind and spirit and of reasonable freedom and opportunity to express them...The very essence of the liberty which they guarantee is the freedom of the individual from compulsion as to what he shall think and what he shall say...

  Harlan F. Stone

  Opportunity, Thinking, Essence

  Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586, (604), 1940.

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• Zealous groups threaten to infringe civil liberties when they seek government support to impose their own religious views on nonadherents. This has taken many forms, including attempts to introduce organized prayer in public schools, to outlaw birth control and abortion, and to use public tax revenues to finance religious schools.

  Norman Dorsen

  Religious, Prayer, Taken

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• The seemingly omnipresent storm clouds hanging over the Constitution often make it hard to find a silver lining. Every day, the front page of The Drudge Report is littered with stories of government assaults on our civil liberties - from local government officials all the way up to the Oval Office.

  Bob Barr

  Clouds, Government, Office

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• All of us in this country give lip service to the ideals set forth in the Bill of Rights and emphasized by every additional amendment, and yet when war is stirring in the world, many of us are ready to curtail our civil liberties. We do not stop to think that curtailing these liberties may in the end bring us a greater danger than the danger we are trying to avert.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Country, War, Thinking

  Cosmopolitan, Feb. 1940

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• Those who are troubled by our existing programs are not interested in a repeat of 9/11, and those who defend these programs are not dismissive of civil liberties. The challenge is getting the details right, and that's not simple.

  Barack Obama

  Simple, Nsa, Challenges

  "President Obama's speech on NSA surveillance reforms - full text". www.theguardian.com. January 17, 2014.

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• For me, it was definitely an education in being grateful. And appreciating the civil liberties we have today, the natural liberties we have at home.

  Aldis Hodge

  Grateful, Home, Appreciate

  Source: www.rogerebert.com

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• What we face is a scared populace, and because it's scared, it's willing to put up with what I think are inevitably more moves toward the constriction of civil liberties, mobility within the country, the ability to travel overseas, all of those things we have long taken for granted.

  Michael Scheuer

  Country, Moving, Taken

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• When I think of civil liberties I think of the founding principles of the country. The freedoms that are in the First Amendment. But also the fundamental right to privacy.

  Tim Cook

  Country, Thinking, Liberty

  Interview with Nancy Gibbs and Lev Grossman, time.com. March 10, 2016.

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• The basic principles of democracy should be observed whatever the country - principles such as civil liberties, a free market, a free press, the priority of the individual over mythical state interests, a state which serves the interests of ordinary people and defends their rights and interests. This is all easy to say but hard to make reality.

  Vladimir Putin

  Country, Reality, Rights

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• I believe in a relatively equal society, supported by institutions that limit extremes of wealth and poverty. I believe in democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law. That makes me a liberal, and I’m proud of it.

  Paul Krugman

  Believe, Law, Political

  "The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming America From The Right". Book by Paul Krugman, October 1, 2007.

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• Civil liberties victories never stay won, but must be fought for over and over again.

  Ira Glasser

  Victory, Liberty, Civil Rights

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• Those who would give up their civil liberties for security deserve neither.

  Larry Flynt

  Giving Up, Liberty, Security

  "George Bush paid for an illegal abortion" by David Bowman, www.blacklistedjournalist.com. August 1, 2004.

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• Terrorism has replaced Communism as the rationale for the militarization of the country [America], for military adventures abroad, and for the suppression of civil liberties at home. It serves the same purpose, serving to create hysteria.

  Howard Zinn

  Country, Military, Home

  Howard Zinn (2011). “Terrorism and War”, p.38, Seven Stories Press

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• Any court which undertakes by its legal processes to enforce civil liberties needs the support of an enlightened and vigorous public opinion which will be intelligent and discriminating as to what cases really are civil liberties cases and what questions really are involved in those cases.

  Robert H. Jackson

  Intelligent, Support, Liberty

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• I am ... a realist. The magnitude of what one terms license or civil liberties or personal freedom has got to be adjusted to the circumstances.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Freedom, Liberty, Realist

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• Whatever else the religious Right may be, it is a bonanza for its opponents... Reports of the great terror that is upon us are raising millions of dollars in fund appeals by Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Organization for Women, Norman Lear's People for the American Way, and others who claim to believe that the religious Right is the greatest peril to American democracy since Joe McCarthy.

  Richard John Neuhaus

  Christian, Religious, Believe

  Richard John Neuhaus, Michael Cromartie, Ethics and Public Policy Center (Washington, D.C.) (1987). “Piety and politics: evangelicals and fundamentalists confront the world”, Ethics & Public Policy Center

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• We must educate ourselves and others about our precious civil liberties to ensure that we never accept demands that we give up our Constitution so that the government can pretend to protect us.

  Ron Paul

  Giving Up, Government, Liberty

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• This [anti-terrorism bill] is a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech and the Fourth Amendment protection of private property... Some of these provisions place more power in the hands of law enforcement than our Founding Fathers could have dreamt and severely compromises the civil liberties of law-abiding Americans. This bill, while crafted with good intentions, is rife with constitutional infringements I could not support.

  Butch Otter

  Father, Hands, Law

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• If you see the rhetoric from coming out of the Democrats is that they're pro-civil liberties, and an important part of civil liberties is respect for the First Amendment and the rule of law, and that has broken down under the Obama administration, and Hillary Clinton was part of that process.

  Julian Assange

  Law, Broken, Important

  "Sean Hannity Is Now a Big Julian Assange Fan". Interview, www.slate.com. September 7, 2016.

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• Of course, the new domestic paramilitary forces will also undermine free speech and dissent with the threat of force while simultaneously threatening core civil liberties, rights and civic responsibilities.

  Henry Giroux

  Responsibility, Rights, Liberty

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• The threats are coming to this country, which will, of course, increase the massive industry known as the anti-terrorism industry, and crush our civil liberties and civil rights, And it's devouring our priorities here in communities all over the country which are in such disrepair and are so neglected in terms of public works and public services.

  Ralph Nader

  Crush, Country, Rights

  Source: www.cpa-connecticut.com

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• President Obama continues to support war. He continues to remove many basic civil liberties and human rights. He continues to condone drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan that kill women and children. He meets with his advisers every Tuesday morning and signs extrajudicial killings. To me, those are not the actions of a peace person.

  Mairead Corrigan

  Morning, Children, War

  Source: www.progressive.org

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• To me the Nobel Peace laureates should not be hosted by a State Department that is continuing with war, removing basic civil liberties and human rights and international law and then talking about peace to young people. That's a double standard.

  Mairead Corrigan

  War, Talking, Law

  Source: www.progressive.org

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• I can say across Europe that many principles that have been taken for granted here around free speech, and around civil liberties and an independent judiciary, and fighting corruption, those are principles that, you know, not perfectly but generally, we have tried to apply not just in our own country but also with respect to our foreign policy.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Taken, Independent

  Source: time.com

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