William O. Douglas Quotations

William O. Douglas was the longest serving Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from April 17, 1939 to November 12, 1975.

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Judicial opinions

The whole, though larger than any of its parts, does not necessarily obscure their separate identities.
- United States v. Powers, 307 U.S. 214, 218 (1939).

We have here the problem of bigness. Its lesson should by now have been burned into our memory by Brandeis. The Curse of Bigness shows how size can become a menace — both industrial and social. It can be an industrial menace because it creates gross inequalities against existing or putative competitors. It can be a social menace — because of its control of prices. Control of prices in the steel industry is powerful leverage on our economy. For the price of steel determines the price of hundreds of other articles. Our price level determines in large measure whether we have prosperity or depression - an economy of abundance or scarcity. Size in steel should therefore be jealously watched. In final analysis, size in steel is the measure of the power of a handful of men over our economy. That power can be utilized with lightning speed. It can be benign or it can be dangerous. The philosophy of the Sherman Act is that it should not exist. For all power tends to develop into a government in itself. Power that controls the economy should be in the hands of elected representatives of the people, not in the hands of an industrial oligarchy. Industrial power should be decentralized. It should be scattered into many hands so that the fortunes of the people will not be dependent on the whim or caprice, the political prejudices, the emotional stability of a few self-appointed men. The fact that they are not vicious men but respectable and social minded is irrelevant. That is the philosophy and the command of the Sherman Act. It is founded on a theory of hostility to the concentration in private hands of power so great that only a government of the people should have it.
- United States v. Steel Co., 334 U.S. 495, 536 (1948).

A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purposes when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it presses for acceptance of an idea.
- Terminiello v. City of Chicago, 337 U.S. 1, 4 (1949).

Absolute discretion is a ruthless master. It is more destructive of freedom than any of man's other inventions.
- United States v. Wunderlich, 342 U.S. 98, 101 (1951).

Our recent decisions make plain that we do not sit as a super-legislature to weigh the wisdom of legislation nor to decide whether the policy which it expresses offends the public welfare.
- Day-Brite Lighting, Inc. v. Missouri, 342 U.S. 421, 423.

We need to be bold and adventurous in our thinking in order to survive.
- Adler v. Board of Education, 342 U.S. 511 (1952).

We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.
- Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306, 313 (1952).

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.
- Public utilities Commission v. Pollak, 343 U.S. 451, 467 (1952).

All executive power — from the reign of ancient kings to the rule of modern dictators - has the outward appearance of efficiency.
- Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952).

The critical point is that the Constitution places the right of silence beyond the reach of government.
- Ullman v. United States, 350 U.S. 422 (1956).

Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience ... that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance.
- Kingsley Books, Inc. v. Brown, 354 U.S. 436, 447 (1957)

The Constitution favors no racial group, no political or social group.
- Uphaus v. Wyman, 364 U.S. 388, 406 (1960).

The conception of political equality from the Declaration of Independence, to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, to the Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Nineteenth Amendments could mean only one thing — one person, one vote.
- Gray v. Sanders, 372 U.S. 368, 381 (1963).

Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred. It is an association that promotes a way of life, not causes; a harmony in living, not political faiths; a bilateral loyalty, not commercial or social projects.
- Griswold v Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 486 (1965).

These examples and many others demonstrate an alarming trend whereby the privacy and dignity of our citizens is being whittled away by sometimes imperceptible steps. Taken individually, each step may be of little consequence. But when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a society quite unlike any we have seen -- a society in which government may intrude into the secret regions of man's life at will.
- Osborn v. United States, 385 U.S. 323, 343 (1966).

For there is no constitutional right for any race to be preferred... If discrimination based on race is constitutionally permissible when those who hold the reins can come up with "compelling" reasons to justify it, then constitutional guarantees acquire an accordion-like quality.
- Defunis v. Odegaarde, 416 U.S. 312 (1974).

Books and articles

The law is not a series of calculating machines where answers come tumbling out when the right levers are pushed.
- 32 Journal of the American Judicial Society 105 (1948).

Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.
- Speech to the Authors Guild Council in New York (December 3, 1951), reported in the Chicago Tribune (March 20, 2005), "PERSPECTIVE", C-1.

These days I see America identified more and more with material things, less and less with spiritual standards. These days I see America acting abroad as an arrogant, selfish, greedy nation interested only in guns and dollars, not in people and their hopes and aspirations. We need a faith that dedicates us to something bigger and more important than ourselves or our possessions. Only if we have that faith will we be able to guide the destiny of nations in this the most critical period of world history.
- Essay for This I Believe (1952).

Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.
- Speech to the Author's Guild Council in New York (1952), quoted in Complete Idiot's Guide to Your Civil Liberties (2003) by Michael Levin, p. 21.

The Fifth Amendment is an old friend and a good friend. one of the great landmarks in men's struggle to be free of tyranny, to be decent and civilized.
- An Almanac of Liberty {1954).

The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth.
- Mike Wallace interview (4 November 1958), quoted in The Great Quotations (1966) by George Seldes

The right to dissent is the only thing that makes life tolerable for a judge of an appellate court... the affairs of government could not be conducted by democratic standards without it.
- America Challenged (1960).

The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected.
- A Living Bill of Rights (1961), p. 64.

Christianity has sufficient inner strength to survive and flourish on its own. It does not need state subsidies, nor state privileges, nor state prestige. The more it obtains state support the greater it curtails human freedom.
- The Bible and the Schools‎ (1966), p. 58.

We must realize that today's Establishment is the New George III. Whether it will continue to adhere to his tactics, we do not know. If it does, the redress, honored in tradition, is also revolution.
- Points of Rebellion (1969).

The first opinion the Court ever filed has a dissenting opinion. Dissent is a tradition of this Court... When someone is writing for the Court, he hopes to get eight others to agree with him, so many of the majority opinions are rather stultified.
- New York Times interview, (29 October 1973).

The Court's great power is its ability to educate, to provide moral leadership.
- Time Magazine interview, (12 November 1973).

The struggle is always between the individual and his sacred right to express himself and the power structure that seeks conformity, suppression, and obedience.
- Go East, Young Man: The Autobiography of William O. Douglas (1974), p. 449.

It seemed to me that I had barely reached the Court when people were trying to get me off.
- The Court years, 1939-1975: the autobiography of William O. Douglas‎ (1980), p. 3 (published posthumously).

The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.
- The Court years, 1939-1975: the autobiography of William O. Douglas‎ (1980), p. 8 (published posthumously).

As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air — however slight — lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.
- The Douglas Letters : Selections from the Private Papers of Justice William O. Douglas (1987) edited by Melvin I. Urofsky and Philip E. Urofsky, p. 16

One who comes to the Court must come to adore, not to protest. That's the new gloss on the First Amendment.
- Said to Justice Potter Stewart on the arrest of peacefully protesting Vietnam War veterans on steps of the Supreme Court. Reported in James B. Simpson, Simpson's Contemporary Quotations (1988), p. 65.

Misattributed

At the constitutional level where we work, ninety percent of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections.
- Although found in Justice Douglas' autobiography, The Court Years (1980), p. 8, Douglas asserts that this was told to him by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes.

Quoternity