The court is really the keeper of the conscience, and the conscience is the Constitution. — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
Men may believe what they cannot prove. They may not be put to the proof of their religious doctrines or beliefs. Religious… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
When a legislature undertakes to proscribe the exercise of a citizen's constitutional right to free speech, it acts lawlessly; and the citizen… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The Framers [of the Constitution] . . . created the federally protected right of silence and decreed that the law could not… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
World federation is an ideal that will not die. More and more people are coming to realize that peace must be more… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
When a legislature undertakes to proscribe the exercise of a citizen's constitutional rights it acts lawlessly and the citizen can take matters… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The First and Fourteenth Amendments say that Congress and the States shall make "no law" which abridges freedom of speech or of… — 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
Inanimate objects are sometimes parties to litigation. A ship has a legal personality, a fiction found useful for maritime purposes. The corporation… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The law is not a series of calculating machines where answers come tumbling out when the right levers are pushed. — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The function of the prosecutor under the federal Constitution is not to tack as many skins of victims as possible against the… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
This freedom of movement is the very essence of our free society, setting us apart. Like the right of assembly and the… — 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
![“The Framers [of the Constitution] . . . created the federally protected right of silence and decreed that the law could not be used to pry open one's lips and make him a witness against himself.” quote by William O. Douglas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/311/william-o-douglas-2931_constitution_the-framers-of-the-constitution-created_1257062.jpg)
