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The layman's constitutional view is that what he likes is constitutional and that which he doesn't like is unconstitutional.

Hugo Black

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Hugo Black
Age: 85 †
Born: 1886
Born: February 27
Died: 1971
Died: September 25
Former Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court Of The United States
Judge
Lawyer
Military Personnel
Politician
Ashland
Alabama
Hugo Lafayette Black
Constitutional
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Views
Society
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Layman
Unconstitutional

More quotes by Hugo Black

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The interest of the people lies in being able to join organizations, advocate causes, and make political mistakes without being subjected to governmental penalties.
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That Amendment requires the state to be a neutral in its relations with groups of religious believers and nonbelievers it does not require the state to be their adversary. State power is no more to be used so as to handicap religions than it is to favor them.
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Laws are made to protect the trusting as well as the suspicious
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The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.
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It would degrade our country and our judicial system to permit our courts to be bullied, insulted and humiliated and the orderly progress thwarted and obstructed by defendants brought before them charged with crimes.
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Words uttered under coercion are proof of loyalty to nothing but self-interest. Love of country must spring from willing hearts and free minds.
Hugo Black
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Criticism of government finds sanctuary in several portions of the 1st Amendment. It is part of the right of free speech. It embraces freedom of the press
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I am for the First Amendment from the first word to the last. I believe it means what it says.
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Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism and others.
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I cannot agree with those who think of the Bill of Rights as an 18th century straitjacket, unsuited for this age...The evils it guards against are not only old, they are with us now, they exist today.
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No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance.
Hugo Black
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The United States has a system of taxation by confession
Hugo Black
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Loyalty must arise spontaneously from the hearts of people who love their country and respect their government.
Hugo Black
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Our Constitution was not written in the sands to be washed away by each wave of new judges blown in by each successive political wind.
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An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment.
Hugo Black
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Sex is a fact of life...and while it may lead to abuses...no words need be spoken...for people to know that the subject is one pleasantly interwoven in all human activities and involves the very substance of creation itself.
Hugo Black
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Citizenship is no light trifle to be jeopardized any moment Congress decides to do so under the name of one of its general or implied grants of power.
Hugo Black
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[I]t is true that [the provisions of the Bill of Rights] were designed to meet ancient evils. But they are the same kind of human evils that have emerged from century to century whenever excessive power is sought by the few at the expense of the many.
Hugo Black
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The Establishment Clause stands as an expression of principle on the part of the Founders of our Constitution that religion is too personal, too sacred, too holy, to permit its 'unhallowed perversion' by a civil magistrate.
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The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose, aiming at something outside self.
Hugo Black