What do you think?

What Do You Think?

If we give up some of our civil liberties, or take away the rights of others, will we actually be safer?

"Whenever we take away the liberties of those whom we hate we are opening the way to loss of liberty for those we love."
-- Politician Wendell L. Wilkie, 1940 presidential candidate

"The inconvenient thing about the American system of justice is that we are usually challenged to protect it at the most inopportune moments."
-- New York Times Editorial, Dec. 2, 2001

Do only "fools" believe that all laws are applied equally?

"Laws are only words written on paper, words that change on society's whim and are interpreted differently daily by politicians, lawyers, judges, and policemen. Anyone who believes that all laws should always be obeyed would have made a fine slave catcher. Anyone who believes that all laws are applied equally, despite race, religion, or economic status, is a fool."
-- Author John J. Miller, 1991

What is the significance of a "sound and uncorrupted public opinion?"

"You may think that the Constitution is your security--it is nothing but a piece of paper. You may think that the statutes are your security--they are nothing but words in a book. You may think that elaborate mechanism of government is your security--it is nothing at all, unless you have sound and uncorrupted public opinion to give life to your Constitution, to give vitality to your statutes, to make efficient your government machinery."
-- Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, 1940