First Amendment Quotes - Page 5

• 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.

  Bobby Jindal

  Laughing, Firsts, Tvs

  "Bobby Jindal Defends ‘Duck Dynasty’ Star Who Compared Homosexuality To Bestiality" by Luke Johnson, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 19, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I must acknowledge God. It says so in the Constitution of Alabama. It says so in the First Amendment of the Constitution.

  Roy Moore

  Scary, Alabama, Firsts

  "Donald Trump's Potential Supreme Court Nominees Could Concern Conservatives" by Samuel Smith, www.christianpost.com. February 15, 2016.

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• I understand that unless you have a government of laws, rather than a government of people, you cannot protect dissent. And I understand, as a woman who probably would have been burned in the marketplace for witchcraft only about 200 years ago, that I need the First Amendment more than anybody does. And that even if I am repelled by child pornography or Bob Guccione's productions, that I have to protect those things, because essentially it's in my self-interest to do so.

  Erica Jong

  Children, Government, Self

  4 Copy quote

• The history of our nation is intertwined with a certain religious tradition, and that the First Amendment was not intended to result in the complete exclusion of religious beliefs from our public classrooms.

  William Bennett

  Christian, Religious, Firsts

  William John Bennett (1994). “The De-valuing of America: The Fight for Our Culture and Our Children”, p.210, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Under the First Amendment's prohibition of the establishment of religion, the Court has steadily made religion a matter for the private individual by driving it out of the public arena.

  Robert Bork

  Christian, Religious, Matter

  4 Copy quote

• Now I realize it's fashionable in some circles to believe that no one in government should encourage others to read the Bible. That we're told we'll violate the constitutional separation of church and state established by the Founding Fathers and the First Amendment. The First Amendment was not written to protect people and their laws from religious values. It was written to protect those values from government tyranny.

  Ronald Reagan

  Religious, Father, Believe

  11 Copy quote

• It appears that some school officials, teachers, and parents have assumed that religious expression of any type is either inappropriate or forbidden altogether in public schools; however, nothing in the First Amendment converts our public schools into religion-free zones.

  William J. Clinton

  Christian, Religious, Teacher

  Clinton, William J. (1996). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1995”, p.1083, Best Books on

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• To the ACLU, the First Amendment speaks more directly to freedom from religion than it does to freedom of religion.

  William Anthony Donohue

  Christian, Religious, Firsts

  7 Copy quote

• The net effect of the distortion of the First Amendment is to require that wherever the state is, religion must be excluded.

  Pat Swindall

  Christian, Religious, Firsts

  4 Copy quote

• Lately the First Amendment has been interpreted to deny equal protection of the law to those who believe in God. The Constitution established freedom for religion, not freedom from religion!

  Jack Kemp

  Christian, Religious, Believe

  7 Copy quote

• Since the writing of our Constitution, our religious liberties have been systematically threatened and whittled away by Supreme Court justices who interpret the First Amendment as a prohibition against religious activity on public property.

  Tim LaHaye

  Christian, Religious, Writing

  Tim F. LaHaye, Beverly LaHaye (1994). “A Nation Without a Conscience”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  Rory Edwards

  Book, Locks, World

  44 Copy quote

• 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.

  Joseph Story

  Real, Government, Giving

  49 Copy quote

• The First Amendment was not intended to withdraw the Christian religion as a whole from the protection of Congress.

  Joseph Story

  Christian, Religious, Firsts

  5 Copy quote

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

  Lindsey Graham

  Issues, Firsts, Protection

  "HUFFPOST HILL - 7,000,000 Congress Fans Can’t Be Wrong", www.huffingtonpost.com. June 5, 2013.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The prima facie evidence provision in this case ignores all of the contextual factors that are necessary to decide whether a particular cross burning is intended to intimidate. The First Amendment does not permit such a shortcut.

  Sandra Day O'Connor

  Government, Doe, Burning

  6 Copy quote

• 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.

  Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

  Ideas, Judging, Competition

  Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974)

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  Joseph Story

  Religious, Encouragement, America

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  Hank Williams, Jr.

  Running, Song, Reading

  "ESPN severs ties with Hank Williams Jr". www.cnn.com. October 6, 2011.

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• Despite the apparent absoluteness of the First Amendment, there are any number of ways of getting around it, ways that are known to any student of law. In general, the strategy is to manipulate the distinction between speech and action which is at bottom a distinction between inconsequential and consequential behavior.

  Stanley Fish

  Law, Numbers, Speech

  6 Copy quote

• The First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights in the United States Constitution were being violated in Albany again and again - freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the equal protection of the laws - I could count at least 30 such violations. Yet the president, sworn to uphold the Constitution, and all the agencies of the United States government at his disposal, were nowhere to be seen.

  Howard Zinn

  Agency, Rights, Government

  "You Can't Be Neutral on A Moving Train". Book by Howard Zinn (Ch. 4: "My Name is Freedom": Albany, Georgia), 1994.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Money, first and foremost, is a medium of communication, conveying the information we call 'price'. Government control of the money supply is censorship, a violation of the First Amendment. Inflation is a lie.

  L. Neil Smith

  Lying, Communication, Government

  "Tactical Reflections" by L. Neil Smith, www.lneilsmith.org.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  Ronald L. Buckwalter

  Exercise, Government, Law

  4 Copy quote

• Pulling a crystalline, cogent rule out of the murk of the court's First Amendment, public forum, and Establishment Clause doctrine is an act of creation too complicated for mere mortals.

  Dahlia Lithwick

  Doctrine, Establishment Clause, Firsts

  6 Copy quote

• Evolutionism is a religious world view that is not supported by science, Scripture, popular opinion, or common sense. The exclusive teaching of this dangerous, mind-altering philosophy in tax supported schools, parks, museums, etc. is a clear violation of the First Amendment.

  Kent Hovind

  Religious, Philosophy, Teaching

  27 Copy quote