William O. Douglas
William O. Douglas
William Orville Douglaswas an American jurist and politician who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Douglas was confirmed at the age of 40, one of the youngest justices appointed to the court. His term, lasting 36 years and 209 days, is the longest term in the history of the Supreme Court...
William O. Douglas quotes about
political-revolution rights-in-america freedom-of-speech
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.
constitution court keepers
The court is really the keeper of the conscience, and the conscience is the Constitution.
constitution nations conscience
The conscience of this nation is the Constitution.
common-sense church unions
The First Amendment, however, does not say that in every and all respects there shall be a separation of Church and State. Rathe, it studiously defines the manner, the specific ways, in which there shall be no concert or union or dependency one on the other. That is the common sense of the matter. Otherwise the state and religion would be aliens to each other.
liberty doe guarantees
What we must remember, however, is that preservation of liberties does not depend on motives. A suppression of liberty has the same effect whether the suppressor be a reformer or an outlaw. The only protection against misguided zeal is constant alertness to infractions of the guarantees of liberty contained in our Constitution. Each surrender of liberty to the demands of the moment makes easier another, larger surrender. . .
upside-down socialism rich
Our upside down welfare state is socialism for the rich, free enterprise for the poor.
heart daggers wilderness
A road is a dagger placed in the heart of a wilderness.
party technology air
Inanimate objects are sometimes parties to litigation. A ship has legal personality...The corporation...is an acceptable adversary and large fortunes ride on its cases...So it should be as respects valleys, ridges, groves of trees, swampland, or even air that feels the destructive pressures of modern technology and modern life.
tree grass judicial
Trees have judicial standing, and probably grass too.
moral-leadership court ability
The Court's great power is its ability to educate, to provide moral leadership.
home police mind
The free state offers what a police state denies - the privacy of the home, the dignity and peace of mind of the individual.
party school rights
We deal with a right of privacy older than the Bill of Rights-older than our political parties, older than our school system.
medicine use patents
No patent medicine was ever put to wider and more varied use than the Fourteenth Amendment.
tactics today revolution
We must realize that today's establishment is the new George III. Whether it will continue to adhere to his tactics, we do not know. If it does, the redress, honored in tradition, is also revolution.