Hugo Black

“ As I understand it, this Court's duty to guard constitutional liberties is to guard those liberties the Constitution defined, not those that may be defined from case to case on the basis of this Court's judgment as to the relative importance of individual liberty and governmental power. The majority's approach makes the First Amendment, not the rigid protection of liberty its language imports, but a poor flexible imitation. ”

“ Only by a dedicated preservation of the freedoms of the First Amendment can we hope to preserve our Nation and its traditional way of life.
It is already past the time when people who recognize and cherish the life-giving and life-preserving qualities of the freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights can afford to sit complacently by while those freedoms are being destroyed by sophistry and dialectics. For at least 11 years, since the decision of this Court in American Communications Ass'n, C.I.O. v. Douds, [17] the forces of destruction have been hard at work. Much damage has already been done. ”

“ For the presently prevailing constitutional doctrine, which treats the First Amendment as a mere admonition, leaves the liberty-giving freedoms which were intended to be protected by that Amendment completely at the mercy of Congress and this Court whenever a majority of this Court concludes, on the basis of any of the several judicially created 'tests' now in vogue, [12] that abridgment of these freedoms is more desirable than freedom itself. ”

“ For the very constitutional philosophy that gave birth to Beauharnais today gives birth to a decision which may well strip the Negro of the aid of many of the white people who have been willing to speak up in his behalf. If the House Un-American Activities Committee is to have the power to interrogate everyone who is called a Communist, [11] there is one thing certain beyond the peradventure of a doubt-no legislative committee, state or federal, will have trouble finding cause to subpoena all persons anywhere who take a public stand for or against segregation. ”

“ Indeed, I think the majority might well have, with equal justification, relied upon a much earlier decision of this Court, that in Beauharnais v. People of State of Illinois. [7] For it was there that a majority of this Court first applied to the right of petition the flexible constitutional rule upon which the decision in this case is based-the rule that the right of petition, though guaranteed in precise and mandatory terms by the First Amendment, may be abandoned at any time Government can offer a reason for doing so that a majority of this Court finds sufficiently compelling. ”

“ United States, 341 U.S. 494, at 509, 71 S.Ct. 857, at page 867, 95 L.Ed. 1137, it was said: 'Overthrow of the Government by force and violence is certainly a substantial enough interest for the Government to limit speech. ”