One who comes to the Court must come to adore, not to protest. That's the new gloss on the First Amendment.
William O. DouglasRead
The critical point is that the Constitution places the right of silence beyond the reach of government.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The Constitution guarantees individuals the right to remain silent, protecting them from government coercion.
This quote emphasizes the fundamental principle enshrined in the Constitution that individuals have the right to refuse to speak to authorities without fear of governmental repercussions. It highlights the importance of protecting individual freedoms against oppressive government actions, ensuring that citizens can defend themselves without being compelled to provide self-incriminating information.
Themes
ConstitutionSilenceGovernmentRightsFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on civil liberties at a law seminar.
More from William O. Douglas
All quotes βThe great and invigorating influences in American life have been the unorthodox: the people who challenge an existing institution or way of life, or say and do things that make people think.
William O. DouglasRead
I have the same confidence in the ability of our people to reject noxious literature as I have in their capacity to sort out the true from the false in theology, economics, or any other field.
William O. DouglasRead
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. DouglasRead
The truth is that a vast restructuring of our society is needed if remedies are to become available to the average person. Without that restructuring the good will that holds society together will be slowly dissipated... It is that sense of futility which permeates the present series of protests and dissents. Where there is a persistent sense of futility, there is violence; and that is where we are today.
William O. DouglasRead
The day should come when all of the forms of life... will stand before the court - the pileated woodpecker as well as the coyote and bear, the lemmings as well as the trout in the streams.
William O. DouglasRead
Similar quotes
The constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it. It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. This is the very essence of judicial duty.
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The agreement of the parties cannot make that good which the law maketh void.
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To force a lawyer on a defendant can only lead him to believe that the law contrives against him.
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When I was a practising lawyer in the family court, there were too many judges who, when you left their courtroom, you didn't know whether you'd won or whether you'd lost.
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I start out with the assumption that a lawyer in a criminal case is going to be incompetent - substantially so. I find my assumption to be rarely wrong. Yet society starts out with the very opposite assumption.
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The task of a judge is not to make the law - it is to apply the law.
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