Quotes by Hugo Black
“Our Constitution was not written in the sand to be washed away by each wave of new judges blown in by each successive political wind.”— Hugo Black
“In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy.”— Hugo Black
“There can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has.”— Hugo Black
“The public welfare demands that constitutional cases must be decided according to the terms of the Constitution itself, and not according to judges' views of fairness, reasonableness, or justice.”— Hugo Black
“It is my belief that there are 'absolutes' in our Bill of Rights, and that they were put there on purpose by men who knew what words meant, and meant their prohibitions to be 'absolutes'.”— Hugo Black
“Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people.”— Hugo Black
“Freedom of speech means that you shall not be punished for speaking your mind on any subject whatsoever.”— Hugo Black
“The layman's constitutional view is that what he likes is constitutional and that which he doesn't like is unconstitutional.”— Hugo Black
“Loyalty must arise spontaneously from the hearts of people who love their country and respect their government.”— Hugo Black
“The word 'security' is a broad, vague generality whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the First Amendment.”— Hugo Black
“The establishment of religion clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church.”— Hugo Black
“I do not believe that it can be too often repeated that the freedoms of speech, press, petition and assembly guaranteed by the First Amendment must be accorded to the ideas we hate or sooner or later they will be denied to the ideas we cherish.”— Hugo Black
“The assumption that respect for the judiciary can be won by shielding judges from published criticism wrongly appraises the character of American public opinion.”— Hugo Black