No one in their right mind can say to me with a straight face that the Patriot Act has not aggregated the Fourth Amendment. — Peter Camejo
The fifth amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees that no private property shall be taken for a public use without the payment of just compensation. — Elton Gallegly
There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all. — Antonin Scalia
The makers of our Constitution . . . conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men. — Louis D. Brandeis
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. — James Madison
Liberty and order will never be perfectly safe until a trespass on the Constitution provisions for either, shall be felt with the same keenness that resents and invasion of the dearest rights. — James Madison
The Second Amendment to our Constitution is clear. The right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed upon. Period. — Donald Trump
The "takings" clause of the Fifth Amendment is for conservatives what the equal protection clause of the 14th is for liberals. — Michael Kinsley
The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable. — James Madison
If the right to privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion. — William J. Brennan
The First Amendment, I think, is the jewel of our Constitution. — Samuel Alito
Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds. — Thurgood Marshall
The Second Amendment only protects the people who want all the guns they can have. The rest of us, we've got no Second Amendment. What are we supposed to do? — Louise Slaughter
We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties. — James Madison
[Individuals] have a right to defend themselves and recover by force what by unlawful force is taken from them. — John Locke
Fifth Amendment Quotes
When you have your staff taking the Fifth Amendment, taking the Fifth so they're not prosecuted, when you have the man that set up the illegal server taking the Fifth, I think it's disgraceful. And believe me, this country thinks it's - really thinks it's disgraceful, also. — Donald Trump
Our bill of rights has been shredded. The fourth amendment specifically prohibits the kind of activities the NSA is involved in domestically. The fifth amendment prohibits any president or anyone else from killing anyone without due process. — Ray McGovern
If you insist on asking me why I feel the way I do, I plan to take the Fifth Amendment. — Mason Cooley
He has called for a repeal of the Fifth Amendment as it affects the right of private property. — Dixie Lee Ray
We misread the Fifth Amendment [of Constitution] and have been misreading it for the past three decades. — Joe Biden
I know that some believe that voluntary prayer in schools should be restricted to a moment of silence. We already have the right to remain silent - we can take our Fifth Amendment. — Ronald Reagan
I'm a lawyer, I practiced for many years, and so I believe in the Fifth Amendment. — Elijah Cummings
For the last couple of hundred years, there have been struggles about this. Even the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the constitution talk about personal rights. — Noam Chomsky
Officers are taught to use all the tricks and lies that courts permit within the scope of the Fifth Amendment's shield against self-incrimination. — David K. Shipler
First Amendment Quotes
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. — Benjamin Franklin
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. — Thomas Jefferson
I believe America went wrong in terms of respecting the First Amendment, the state of free speech on American college campuses and on the media and in academia. — Milo Yiannopoulos
The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed. — James Madison
It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears. — Louis D. Brandeis
The First Amendment has the same role in my life as a citizen and a writer as the sun has in our ecosystem. — Michael Chabon
If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable. — William J. Brennan
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
Just as the strength of the Internet is chaos, so the strength of our liberty depends upon the chaos and cacophony of the unfettered speech the First Amendment protects. — Stewart Dalzell
Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us. — William O. Douglas
Fourteenth Amendment Quotes
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
As a matter of history, the Fourteenth Amendment was not understood to ban segregation on the basis of race. — Cass Sunstein
No patent medicine was ever put to wider and more varied use than the Fourteenth Amendment. — William O. Douglas
I believe that nothing enjoys a higher estate in our society than the right given by the First and Fourteenth Amendments freely to practice and proclaim one's religious convictions. — Frank Murphy
The nativism behind the push to repeal or amend the Fourteenth is ugly and obvious. — Eric Liu
First Amendment Rights Quotes
An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment. — Hugo Black
Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order. — Robert H. Jackson
Without either the first or second amendment, we would have no liberty; the first allows us to find out what's happening, the second allows us to do something about it! The second will be taken away first, followed by the first and then the rest of our freedoms. — Unknown Author
The Washington Times wrote a story questioning the authenticity of some of the suggestions made about me in Silent Coup. But as a believer in the First Amendment, I believe they have more than a right to air their views. — Bob Woodward
Just as the First and Fourth Amendment secure individual rights of speech and security respectively, the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. This view of the text comports with the all but unanimous understanding of the Founding Fathers. — John Ashcroft
First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end. The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought. — Anthony Kennedy
A lot of people in the adult population have a very limited idea as to why they are Americans, why we have a First Amendment or a Bill of Rights. — Nat Hentoff
It just seems to be a human trait to want to protect the speech of people with whom we agree. For the First Amendment, that is not good enough. So it is really important that we protect First Amendment rights of people no matter what side of the line they are on. — Floyd Abrams
[Asserting] important First Amendment rights ... why should [executions] be the one area that is conducted behind closed doors?... Why shouldn't executions be public? — Phil Donahue
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
When they took the Fourth Amendment, I was silent because I don't deal drugs. When they took the Sixth Amendment, I kept quiet because I know I'm innocent. When they took the Second Amendment, I said nothing because I don't own a gun. Now they've come for the First Amendment, and I can't say anything at all. — Tim Freeman
For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected. — Potter Stewart
Asking questions is an essential part of police investigation. In the ordinary sense a police officer is free to ask a person for identification without implicating the Fourth Amendment. — Anthony Kennedy
It is especially imperative for Congress to exercise careful judgment in this area, because of the difficulty under existing laws, in obtaining judicial review of Postal Service abuses. ...We strongly oppose the legislation's infringement of rights guaranteed under the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution. — John Shattuck
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
When you suveil a person abroad, you don't have to have a warrant to do so. That has never been so they don't have the fourth amendment protection. On occasion, that person might call somebody in the United States, and if they're a terrorist, you really want to know who they are talking to. Maybe they're plotting an attack on the United States. — Jeff Sessions
The Fourth Amendment is clear; we should be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects, and all warrants must have probable cause. Today the government operates largely in secret, while seeking to know everything about our private lives - without probable cause and without a warrant. — Ron Paul
We are going to have a long period where people are accustomed or conditioned to what's going on now with the raping of the Fourth Amendment. — Nat Hentoff
I was lecturing at the Columbia Journalism School of Education. I asked them about what was happening to the Fourth Amendment. I said, "By the way, do you know what is in the Fourth Amendment?" One student responded, "Is that the right to bear arms?" It's hard to believe these are bright students. — Nat Hentoff
The Fourth Amendment is on life support and the chief agent of that is the National Security Agency. — Nat Hentoff
The Fourth Amendment was what we fought the Revolution over! — Rand Paul
When a young non-white male is stopped and searched at the whim of a police officer, his idea of personal space, privacy and self esteem are shattered, to say nothing of his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment protections. The damage goes deep quickly and stays. Stop & frisk, as well as a tactic, is also an incitement. — Henry Rollins
Disturbingly, the First Amendment, along with the Fourth Amendment - protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures, and requiring warrants - have been the major casualties of the shift in government policy in the last two decades. Unfortunately, I think that the biggest consequences of this tragedy won't be clear until it is far, far too late. — Chelsea Manning
The media has been very bad about informing us about what is going on. They focus on surface things. They do not focus enough on the fact that the Fourth Amendment is on life support and that we need a return to transparency in government. — Nat Hentoff
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
The First Amendment of the US Constitution ... is an eloquent repudiation of the First Commandment's prohibition of religious freedom. It is also a repudiation of the Third Commandment's prohibition of freedom of speech. The Thirteenth Amendment repudiates the institution of slavery which is so cozily assumed by the Fourth and Tenth Protestant Commandments. — Frank Zindler
He [Louis Brandeis] would have not had any patience with that great debate which you're right to kind of signal between Justice Scalia and Justice Alito about do you need a physical trespass into the home or onto the carriage in order to trigger the values of the Fourth Amendment. — Jeffrey Rosen
I'd say that [Louis] Brandeis practiced a kind of a "living originalism," to use the title of Jack Balkin's great book. He said you start with the paradigm case, which in the case of the Fourth Amendment was these general warrants or writs of assistance, but you define it at a level of abstraction that you can take it into our age and make it our own. — Jeffrey Rosen
I don't think it's a lack of will. I think it's an issue of what people view as constitutional rights under the Fourth Amendment, number one, and what customers and business partners expect around the world from secure computing systems. And it's a difference of view. — Rod Beckstrom
It's hard for me to believe that just my words on the page are enough. I ought to be out physically keeping abortion safe and legal, restoring the Fourth Amendment, getting clean water back into Kentucky since the Bush Administration has allowed strip miners to fill it all up with slag. The list is endless. Bring it down. Make it small. Make it one thing that you can do. It's very hard for me to remember that. — Sara Paretsky
The DOJ has employed these investigations in communities across our nation to reform serious patterns and practices of force, biased policing and other unconstitutional practices by law enforcement. I'm asking the Department of Justice to investigate if our police department has engaged in a pattern or practice of stops, searches or arrests that violate the Fourth Amendment. — Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
I want to collect more records from terrorists, but less records from innocent Americans. The Fourth Amendment was what we fought the Revolution over! John Adams said it was the spark that led to our war for independence, and I'm proud of standing for the Bill of Rights, and I will continue to stand for the Bill of Rights. — Rand Paul
No one contends that the other Amendments that preserve rights of 'the people' -the First, Fourth, Ninth and Tenth-do not preserve individuals' rights. The same must be true of the Second. — Jed Babbin
The nice men in periwigs who came up with the Fourth Amendment were recklessly naive to imagine that branches of a government, each of whose power is enhanced when the power of the other branches grows, would serve to check one another. — Ilana Mercer
This view of the text comports with the all but unanimous understanding of the Founding Fathers. — John Ashcroft
In Conclusion
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