Quotes Flashcards
‘I have been honoured with your letter of the 31 of March, and find with much pleasure that your views of the reform which ought to be pursued by the Convention, give a sanction to those which I have entertained…”
“It seems, at least, necessary that the oaths of the judges should include a fidelity to the general as well as local constitution, and that an appeal should lie to some national tribunals in all cases to which foreigners or inhabitants of other states may be parties, the admiralty jurisdiction seems to fall entirely within the purview of the national government, the national supremacy….
James Madison to George Washington April 16, 1787
The idea of Separation the executive business of the confederacy from Congress, as the judiciary is already, in some degree, is just and necessary…. But the referring to this committee all executive business, as it should present itself, would require a more persevering self-denial than I suppose Congress to possess. IT would be much to make that separation by a federal. Act”.
Thomas Jefferson to James Maddison 1787
The whole history of human nature cannot produce a government like that before you. The manner in which the judiciary and other branches of the government are formed, seems to me calculated to lay prostrate the states…
“…a constitution, sir, ought to be, like a beacon, held up to the public eye, so as to be understood by every, man… by the bill of rights of England, a subject has aright to a trial by his peers. What is meant by his peers? Those who reside near him, his neighbors, and who are well acquainted with his character and situation in life….
• Patrick Henry, Virginia Convention, June 23, 1788
We admit that, in many places and in ordinary times, the defendants, in saying all that was said in the circular, would have been within their constitutional rights. But the character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done… The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.. the question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of **proximity and degree. **
Oliver Wendell Holmes in Schenck v. United States 1919
“The legislature not lonely commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword of the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatsoever. IT may truly be said to have neither Force nor Will, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments”
Judicial Review
The Federalist #78 (James madison, john jay, Alexander Hamilton)
You don’t need to worry about the judiciary, it doesn’t hold the sword nor the purse.
“ In reality, there is not a more terrible event than a total dissolution of government, which gives liberty to the multitude, and makes the determination or choice of a new….
David Hume
“Freedom of speech is the great bulwark of liberty; they prosper and die together; and it is the terror of traitors and oppressors, and a barrier against them.
“Tyranny had usurped the peace of equality, which is the soul of liberty, and destroyed public courage. The minds of men, terrified by unjust power, degenerated into all the vileness and methods of servitude:”
Cato Letter #15
“It is a fundamental principle, long established, that the freedom of speech and of the press which is secured by the Constitution does not confer an absolute right to speak or publish, without responsibility, whatever one may choose, or an unrestricted and unbridled license
Justice Edward T. Sanford held in Gitlow v. People of the States of New York 1925
“There being nothing more essential to the freedom of a state, than that the people should be governed by the laws, and that justice be administered by such only as are accountable for mal administration, it is hereby further declared that all proceedings touching the lives, liberties and estates of all the free people of this commonwealth, shall be according to the laws of the land, and that the Parliament will not meddle with ordinary administration, or the executive part of the law: it being the principle part of this, as it hath been of all former Parliaments, to provide for the freedom of the people against arbitrariness in govt.”
Hayek
In regards to the Declaration of Parliament Assembled at Westminster
“Though it is more difficult to form a republican government in an extensive country than in a city; there is more facility, when once it is formed, of preserving it steady and uniform, without tumult and faction
David Hume
This is very similar to Fed # 10 (big fish and little fish in the same pond)
“We admit, as all must admit, that the powers of Government are limited, and that its limits are not to be transcended. …Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the Constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adopted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the constitution, are constitution.”
Implied Powers Doctrine from McCulouch V. Maryland
“we are tempted to say, in fact, that the flag’s deservedly cherished place in our community will be strengthened, not weakened, by our holding today. Our decision is a reaffirmation of the principles of freedom and inclusiveness that the flag best reflects, and of the conviction that our toleration of criticism such as Johnson…..
J. Brennan in Texas V. Johnson 1989
“ And I take this opportunity to declare that.. I will to my dying day oppose, with all the powers and faculties God has given me, all such instruments of slavery on the one hand and villainy on the other as this Writ of Assistance is.”
“The only principles of public conduct that are worthy of a gentleman or a man are to sacrifice estate, ease, health, and applause, and even life, to the sacred calls of his country.”
• “A man’s house is his castle; and whilst he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ, if it should be declared legal, would totally annihilate this privilege.
James Otis
Writs of Assistance Case
“But, as against dangers peculiar to war, as against others, the principle of the right to free speech is always the same. It is only the present danger of immediate evil or an intent to bring it about that warrants Congress in setting a limit to the expression of opinion where private rights are not concerned.
Holmes in Abrams V. United States
“In what Liberty Consists. It is true that in democracies the people seem to act as they please; but political liberty does not consist in an unlimited freedom. In governments, that is, in societies directed y laws, liberty can consist only in the power of doing what we ought to will, and in not being constrained to do what we ought not to will.”
MONTESQUIEU
Political Freedom is not unlimited
