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[The Bill of Rights is] designed to protect individuals and minorities against the tyranny of the majority, but it's also designed to protect the people against bureaucracy, against the government.
Laurence Tribe
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The Bill of Rights safeguards individual freedoms from both majority rule and government overreach.

This quote emphasizes the dual role of the Bill of Rights: it is not only a shield for individuals and minority groups from the potential oppression of the majority but also serves as a protection against excessive government authority. It underlines the importance of safeguarding personal liberties in a democratic society, ensuring that both individual rights and the rule of law are upheld.

Themes

Bill Of RightsIndividual RightsMinoritiesGovernmentTyranny

In practice

Example use cases

During a constitutional law lecture discussing the importance of civil liberties.

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