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A theory deeply etched in our law [is that] a free society prefers to punish the few who abuse the rights of free speech after they break the law rather than to throttle them and all others beforehand.

Clarence Thomas

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Clarence Thomas
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: June 23
Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court Of The United States
Judge
Lawyer
Politician
Pin Point
Georgia
Black
Theory
Etched
Others
Justice
Throttle
Break
Prefers
Rights
Beforehand
Law
Punish
Society
Abuse
Rather
Deeply
Free
Speech

More quotes by Clarence Thomas

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I don't really have the luxury to be bitter. I don't have the luxury of having negative things in my life.
Clarence Thomas
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People get bent out of shape about the fact that when I was a kid, you could not drink out of certain water fountains. Well, the water was the same.
Clarence Thomas
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In our society, marriage is not simply a governmental institution it is a religious institution as well, today's decision might change the former, but it cannot change the latter.
Clarence Thomas
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Today, now, it is time to move forward, a time to look for what is good in others, what is good in our country. It is time to see what we have in common, what we have to share as human beings and citizens.
Clarence Thomas
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Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot.
Clarence Thomas
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Even as someone who's labeled a conservative - I'm a Republican I'm black, I'm heading up this organization in the Reagan administration - I can say that conservatives don't exactly break their necks to tell blacks that they're welcome.
Clarence Thomas
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A good argument diluted to avoid criticism is not nearly as good as the undiluted argument, because we best arrive at truth through a process of honest and vigorous debate. Arguments should not sneak around in disguise, as if dissent were somehow sinister... For it is bravery that is required to secure freedom.
Clarence Thomas
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I do think that our freedoms are at risk.
Clarence Thomas
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Any discrimination, like sharp turns in a road, becomes critical because of the tremendous speed at which we are traveling into the high-tech world of a service economy.
Clarence Thomas
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I actually think that I have been fortunate to have had misfortune, because the response, in responding to the misfortune, you develop in your own life, you develop sort of the tools you need to continue on, or to do better.
Clarence Thomas
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Religious liberty is about freedom of action in matters of religion generally, and the scope of that liberty is directly correlated to the civil restraints placed upon religious practice.
Clarence Thomas
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The myths that are created about the South, about the way we grew up, about black people, are wrong.
Clarence Thomas
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I was smart enough to use pot without getting caught, and now I'm on the Supreme Court. If you were stupid enough to get caught, that's your problem. Your appeal is denied. This 40 year sentence just might teach you a lesson.
Clarence Thomas
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The Constitution does not vest in Congress the authority to protect society from every bad act that might befall it....[I]f followed to its logical extreme, [this approach] would result in an unwarranted expansion of federal power.
Clarence Thomas
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Government cannot make us equal it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law.
Clarence Thomas
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[T]he courts are so willing to assume that anything that is predominantly black must be inferior.... The mere fact that a school is black does not mean that it is the product of an unconstitutional violation.
Clarence Thomas
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It takes a person with a mission to succeed.
Clarence Thomas
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I don't know one of my friends who is considered a conservative who has not had to go back and thoroughly think through everything. You do a lot of soul-searching - 'cause we are not going to win any popularity contests.
Clarence Thomas
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We've talked more about civil rights after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than we talked about it before 1964.
Clarence Thomas
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My grandfather was a man, when he talked about freedom, his attitude was really interesting. His view was that you had obligations or you had responsibilities, and when you fulfilled those obligations or responsibilities, that then gave you the liberty to do other things.
Clarence Thomas