"The first ten amendments were proposed and adopted largely because of fear that Government might unduly interfere with prized individual liberties. The people wanted and demanded a Bill of Rights written into their Constitution. The amendments embodying the Bill of Rights were intended to curb all branches of the Federal Government in the fields touched by the amendments—Legislative, Executive, and Judicial." ~ Justice Hugo L. Black (1886-1971) US Supreme Court Justice Adamson v. California, 332 U.S. 46, 71 (Dissent) (1947).
"The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to “create” rights. Rather they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting." ~ Justice William J. Brennan (1906-1997) U. S. Supreme Court Justice
1982
"In the United States, Sovereignty resides in the people, who act through the organs established by the Constitution." ~ Chisholm v. Georgia Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dall 419, 471
"No legislative act contrary to the Constitution can be valid. To deny this would be to affirm that the deputy (agent) is greater than his principal; that the servant is above the master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people; that men, acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid. It is not to be supposed that the Constitution could intend to enable the representatives of the people to substitute their will to that of their constituents. A Constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by judges as fundamental law. If there should happen to be a irreconcilable variance between the two, the Constitution is to be preferred to the statute." ~ Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) American statesman, Secretary of the Treasury Federalist Papers #78, See also Warning v. The Mayor of Savannah, 60 Georgia, P.93; First Trust Co. v. Smith, 277 SW 762, Marbury v. Madison, 2 L Ed 60; and Am.Juris. 2d Constitutional Law, section 177-178)
"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense..." ~ Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) American statesman, Secretary of the Treasury The Federalist Papers, No. 28
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined." ~ Patrick Henry (1736-1799) US Founding Father
Virginia Convention on the ratification of the Constitution, June 5, 1788, in Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution,_ Jonathan Elliot, ed., v.3 p.45 (Philadelphia, 1836)
"Emergency does not create power. Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved. The Constitution was adopted in a period of grave emergency. Its grants of power to the federal government and its limitations of the power of the States were determined in the light of emergency, and they are not altered by emergency." ~ Justice Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948) Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Home Building & Loan Assn v. Blairsdell, 1934
"It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error." ~ Justice Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), U. S. Supreme Court Justice US Supreme Court, American Communications Association v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382, 442 (1950)
"The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections." ~ Justice Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), U. S. Supreme Court Justice West Virginia Board of Education vs. Barnette, 1943
"I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people, which produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government." ~ Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President Letter to James Madison, Paris, January 30, 1787. THE POLITICAL WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 67 (Dumbauld Ed. 1955).
"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." ~ Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President November 13, 1787, letter to William S. Smith, quoted in Padover's Jefferson On Democracy, ed., 1939
"The first ten amendments were proposed and adopted largely because of fear that Government might unduly interfere with prized individual liberties. The people wanted and demanded a Bill of Rights written into their Constitution. The amendments embodying the Bill of Rights were intended to curb all branches of the Federal Government in the fields touched by the amendments—Legislative, Executive, and Judicial." ~ Justice Hugo L. Black (1886-1971) US Supreme Court Justice Adamson v. California, 332 U.S. 46, 71 (Dissent) (1947).
"The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to “create” rights. Rather they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting." ~ Justice William J. Brennan (1906-1997) U. S. Supreme Court Justice 1982
"In the United States, Sovereignty resides in the people, who act through the organs established by the Constitution." ~ Chisholm v. Georgia Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dall 419, 471
"No legislative act contrary to the Constitution can be valid. To deny this would be to affirm that the deputy (agent) is greater than his principal; that the servant is above the master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people; that men, acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid. It is not to be supposed that the Constitution could intend to enable the representatives of the people to substitute their will to that of their constituents. A Constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by judges as fundamental law. If there should happen to be a irreconcilable variance between the two, the Constitution is to be preferred to the statute." ~ Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) American statesman, Secretary of the Treasury Federalist Papers #78, See also Warning v. The Mayor of Savannah, 60 Georgia, P.93; First Trust Co. v. Smith, 277 SW 762, Marbury v. Madison, 2 L Ed 60; and Am.Juris. 2d Constitutional Law, section 177-178)
"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense..." ~ Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) American statesman, Secretary of the Treasury The Federalist Papers, No. 28
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined." ~ Patrick Henry (1736-1799) US Founding Father Virginia Convention on the ratification of the Constitution, June 5, 1788, in Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution,_ Jonathan Elliot, ed., v.3 p.45 (Philadelphia, 1836)
"Emergency does not create power. Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved. The Constitution was adopted in a period of grave emergency. Its grants of power to the federal government and its limitations of the power of the States were determined in the light of emergency, and they are not altered by emergency." ~ Justice Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948) Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Home Building & Loan Assn v. Blairsdell, 1934
"It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error." ~ Justice Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), U. S. Supreme Court Justice US Supreme Court, American Communications Association v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382, 442 (1950)
"The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections." ~ Justice Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), U. S. Supreme Court Justice West Virginia Board of Education vs. Barnette, 1943
"I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people, which produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government." ~ Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President Letter to James Madison, Paris, January 30, 1787. THE POLITICAL WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 67 (Dumbauld Ed. 1955).
"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." ~ Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President November 13, 1787, letter to William S. Smith, quoted in Padover's Jefferson On Democracy, ed., 1939