The Court’s attempt to distinguish the communication inherent in political contributions from the speech aspects of political expenditures simply ‘will not wash.’ We do little but engage in word games unless we recognize that people-candidates and contributors-spend money on political activity because they wish to communicate ideas, and their constitutional interest in doing so is precisely the same whether they or someone else utters the words. Chief Justice Burger
Partial Dissent/Partial Concurrence of Chief Justice Burger in Buckley v. Valeo
Monthly Archives: March 2024
It is necessary for us to learn from others’ mistakes. You will …
It is necessary for us to learn from others’ mistakes. You will not live long enough to make them all yourself. Hyman Rickover
I could never turn against or show the least lack of loyalty …
I could never turn against or show the least lack of loyalty to my family since this is in sharp contradiction with the family values I was brought up on–the values that continue to sustain my lifeblood and determine my mental life more effectively thananything else. Indeed, the faith I have in these values deepens day after day, so much that I have come to believe that only adherence to such values can savesociety–that there can be hope only for a society which acts as one big family and not as many separate ones. Anwar Sadat
President of Egypt
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[T]here is practically universal agreement that a major purpose of [the First] Amendment was to protect the free discussion of governmental affairs . . . [including] discussions of candidates . . . U.S. Supreme Court
Mills v. Alabama, 384 U.S. 214, 218 (1966)
My wife is always trying to get rid of me. The other …
My wife is always trying to get rid of me. The other day she told me to put the garbage out. I said to her I already did. She told me to go and keep an eye on it. Rodney Dangerfield
The whole drama of the world is such a tragedy that I …
The whole drama of the world is such a tragedy that I am weary of the spectacle. John Adams
On the eve of his and George Washington’s 2nd innauguration. 1735-1826, American diplomat and 2nd President of the United States from 1797-1801
Avoid name-calling or raising your voice. Think of it is the …
Avoid name-calling or raising your voice. Think of it is the duct-tape solution to temper problems. Until you learn to express your anger in a constructive way, don’t express it at all. Albert J. Bernstein, PhD
Emotional Vampires
Balancing the budget is like going to heaven. Everybody wants to do …
Balancing the budget is like going to heaven. Everybody wants to do it, but nobody wants to do what you have to do to get there. Phil Gramm
Phil Gramm, This Week with David Brinkley, September 16, 1990
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has us free and …
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Paul
Galatians 5.1, quoted in the Wall Street Journal,Christmas Eve, 1949.
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[Granting monopolies is bad because they constitute] an invasion of the rights of others to choose a lawful calling, and an infringement of personal liberty. Mr. Justice Stephen Field
Justice Stephen Field: Shaping Liberty from the Gold Rush to the Gilded Age, by Paul Kens. University Press of Kansas, 1997.