A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The challenge to our liberties comes frequently not from those who consciously seek to destroy our system of government, but from men… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
Freedom of movement is the very essence of our free society -- once the right to travel is curtailed, all other rights… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The Second Amendment reveals a profound principle of American government - the principle of civilian ascendency over the military. — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The critical point is that the Constitution places the right of silence beyond the reach of government. — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
Once the government can demand of a publisher the names of the purchasers of his publication, the free press as we know… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
These unwritten amenities have been in part responsible for giving our people the feeling of independence and self-confidence, the feeling of creativity.… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
Realization of this need means adults must awaken to the urgency of the young people's unrest-in other words there must be created… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
“Once the government can demand of a publisher the names of the purchasers of his publications, the free press as we know… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
Political controls in the sense that we think of bureaus or departments of government can never ope to produce collaboration between groups… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights we designed to get the government off the backs of the people -- all the… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
But our society - unlike most in the world - presupposes that freedom and liberty are in a frame of reference that… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
“Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The right to dissent is the only thing that makes life tolerable for a judge of an appellate court... the affairs of… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
Effective self-government cannot succeed unless the people are immersed in a steady, robust, unimpeded, and uncensored flow of opinion and reporting which… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
“These examples and many others demonstrate an alarming trend whereby the privacy and dignity of our citizens is being whittled away by… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
“We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, where everyone is open to surveillance at all times; where there are no… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people. — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The First Amendment makes confidence in the common sense of our people and in the maturity of their judgement the great postulate of our… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
Inanimate objects are sometimes parties to litigation. A ship has a legal personality, a fiction found useful for maritime purposes. The corporation sole -… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
Any test that turns on what is offensive to the community's standards is too loose, too capricious, too destructive of freedom of expression to… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
I've often thought that if planners were botanists, zoologists, geologists, and people who know about the earth, we would have much more wisdom in… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
I have the same confidence in the ability of our people to reject noxious literature as I have in their capacity to sort out… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected. — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
At the constitutional level where we work, 90 percent of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
To be whole and harmonious, man must also know the music of the beaches and the woods. He must find the thing of which… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
We deal with a right of privacy older than the Bill of Rights-older than our political parties, older than our school system. — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
