The First Amendment requires the invalidation of the Act’s independent expenditure ceiling, its limitation on a candidate’s expenditures from his own personal funds, and its ceiling on overall campaign expenditures, since those provisions place substantial and direct restrictions on the ability of candidates, citizens, and associations to engage in protected political expression, restrictions that the First Amendment cannot tolerate. .. . The First Amendment denies government the power to determine that spending to promote one’s political views is wasteful, excessive, or unwise. In the free society ordained by our Constitution it is not the government, but the people-individually as citizens and candidates and collectively as associations and political committees-who must retain control over the quantity and range of debate on public issues in a political campaign. Chief Justice Burger
Partial Dissent/Partial Concurrence of Chief Justice Burger in Buckley v. Valeo
Category Archives: Quotations Freedom
Assume the worst about people, and you’ll generally be correct. Scott …
Assume the worst about people, and you’ll generally be correct. Scott Adams
The government that seems the most unwise, Oft goodness to the people …
The government that seems the most unwise,Oft goodness to the people best supplies;That which is meddling, touching everything,Will work but ill, and disappointment bring. The Tao Te Ching
(The Tao favors a minimalist approach to governance, one which allows the people to solve their own problems. The verses quoted are from various translations of 57, 58, and 75.)
If ignorance is bliss then knock the smile off my face zack …
If ignorance is bliss then knock the smile off my face zack de la rocha
settle for nothing, by the band ‘rage against the machine’
Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member …
Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. Mark Twain
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens): Manuscript note, c.1882 (1835-1910)
People who object to weapons aren’t abolishing violence, they’re begging …
People who object to weapons aren’t abolishing violence, they’re begging for rule by brute force, when the biggest, strongest animals among men were always automatically ‘right.’ Guns ended that, and social democracy is a hollow farce without an armed populace to make it work. L. Neil Smith
The Probability Broach
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, …
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Constitution of the United States of America
Amendment IV (1791)
It is better to be making the news than taking it, to …
It is better to be making the news than taking it, to be an actor rather than a critic. Winston Churchill
1898, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, British statesman and Prime Minister (1940-1945; 1951-1955) 1874-1965
The pig if I am not mistaken supplies us sausage, ham, and …
The pig if I am not mistakensupplies us sausage, ham, and bacon. Let others say his heart is bigI call it stupid of the pig. O. Nash
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind …
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits Thomas Jefferson
1816 (1743-1826).(Investor’s Business Daily, November 25, 1998)