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Title: Defending 4um's Rights: Whitney v. California (No. 3) 453, affirmed
Source:
Cornell Law School
URL Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/ht ... rics/USSC_CR_0274_0357_ZC.html
Published: May 16, 1927
Author: BRANDEIS, J.
Post Date: 2009-05-26 21:52:16 by Deasy
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Keywords: None
Views: 147
Comments: 6
Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the State was to make men free to develop their faculties, and that, in its government, the deliberative forces should prevail over the arbitrary. They valued liberty both as an end, and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness, and courage to be the secret of liberty. They believed that freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth; that, without free speech and assembly, discussion would be futile; that, with them, discussion affords ordinarily adequate protection against the dissemination of noxious doctrine; that the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty, and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government. [n2] They recognized the risks to which all human institutions are subject. But they knew that order cannot be secured merely through fear of punishment for its infraction; that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination; that fear breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces stable government; that the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies, and that the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones. Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, they eschewed silence [p376] coerced by law -- the argument of force in its worst form. Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed. Subscribe to *Up to the Sun*
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#1. To: Deasy (#0)
Not true... The greatest menace to freedom has been the advent of lifetime career politicians, with a death grip on power. Not by chance the overwhelming majority have been and are lawyers.
Although both Brandies and Sotomayor are functionaries of the political left, the most obvious difference between them is intelligence, with Sotomayor lagging miles behind.
My only question at this point: do we have any cases like this for American nationalists?
Yeah, the old out of date Founders realized what so many today, with it in their face can't recognize.
"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that its people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms....The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson
bump that
greatest menace to freedom is an inert people;
#2. To: All (#0)
#3. To: Deasy (#0)
#4. To: Jethro Tull (#3)
#5. To: Deasy (#0)
They recognized the risks to which all human institutions are subject. But they knew that order cannot be secured merely through fear of punishment for its infraction; that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination; that fear breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces stable government; that the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies, and that the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones. Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, they eschewed silence [p376] coerced by law -- the argument of force in its worst form. Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.
#6. To: phantom patriot (#5)
"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that its people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms....The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams 
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