First Amendment Quotes - Page 6

• 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.

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• The first amendment ensures not that speech will be fair, but that it will be free. It cannot be both.

  David Mamet

  Speech, Firsts, Amendments

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• 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

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• 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.

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• It is true that many Americans find the Commandments in accord with their personal beliefs. But we do not count heads before enforcing the First Amendment.

  Sandra Day O'Connor

  Firsts, Belief, Amendments

  McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union, 545 U.S. 844, 2005.

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• The First Amendment is not an altar on which we must sacrifice our children, families, and community standards. Obscene material that is not protected by the First Amendment can and must be prohibited.

  Orrin Hatch

  Children, Sacrifice, Community

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• Today, the religion clauses of the First Amendment do not need to be fixed; they need to be followed.

  Walter F. Mondale

  Atheism, Today, Firsts

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• The First Amendment exists to protect our religious liberty--to ensure that all Americans are able to seek out worship God with all our hearts, free from government coercion; it does not mandate scouring the public square to forcibly remove all acknowledgement s of the Almighty

  Ted Cruz

  Religious, Heart, Squares

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• This separation was absolute in our original Republic. But the sky-godders do not give up easily. In the 1950s they actually got the phrase In God We Trust onto the currency, in direct violation of the First Amendment.

  Gore Vidal

  Giving Up, Sky, Religion

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• If America has a civic religion, the First Amendment is its central article of faith.

  Henry Louis Gates

  America, Democracy, Firsts

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• The First Amendment guarantees liberty of human expression in order to preserve in our Nation what Mr. Justice Holmes called a "free trade in ideas." To that end, the Constitution protects more than just a man's freedom to say or write or publish what he wants. It secures as well the liberty of each man to decide for himself what he will read and to what he will listen. The Constitution guarantees, in short, a society of free choice.

  Potter Stewart

  Writing, Men, Expression

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• The modern public school derived from a philosophy of freedom reflected in the First Amendment ... The non-sectarian or secular public school was the means of reconciling freedom in general with religious freedom.

  William J. Brennan

  Religious, Philosophy, School

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• Government...may not be hostile to any religion or to the advocacy of no-religion; and it may not aid, foster, or promote one religion or religious theory against another... The First Amendment mandates governmental neutrality.

  Abe Fortas

  Religious, Government, Neutrality

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• 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

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• Jefferson found in the religion phrases of the First Amendment no vague or fuzzy language to be bent or shaped or twisted as suited any Supreme Court Justice or White House incumbent. That amendment had built a wall, with the ecclesiastical estate on one side and the civil estate on the other.

  Edwin Gaustad

  Wall, White, Justice

  Edwin Scott Gaustad (1993). “Neither King Nor Prelate: Religion and the New Nation, 1776-1826”, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

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• Asked random questions about the First Amendment and how they would like to have it applied, if you believe in polls at all, the average American wants no part of it. But if you ask, 'What if we threw the Constitution away tomorrow?' the answer is 'No, that would be bad!' But living under the Constitution is another story altogether.

  Frank Zappa

  Believe, Average, What If

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• Outlawing religion form the political arena is not what the Founding Fathers intended when they drafted the First Amendment. We do a grave disservice to our country by removing the influence of religion. If you separate God from the public arena, inevitably you separate good from our government.

  Bill Bright

  Country, Father, Government

  Bill Bright, John N. Damoose (1998). “Red Sky in the Morning”

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