One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights.
quote by James K. Polk
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
We know no document is perfect, but when we amend the Constitution, it would be to expand rights, not to take away rights from decent, loyal Americans. This great Constitution of ours should never be used to make a group of Americans permanent second-class citizens.
quote by Barbara Boxer
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The constitution exists to protect minorities like us from majority votes. We need the constitution to stand up for us. We need politicians and like-minded, fair-minded people to stand up and insist that the constitution protect us the way it's designed to do.
quote by Chad Allen
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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[Mankind] is governed by minorities, seldom or never by majorities. It suppresses its feelings and its beliefs and follows the handful that makes the most noise. Sometimes the noisy handful is right, sometimes wrong, but no matter, the crowd follows it.
Mark Twain in The Mysterious Stranger
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Each state, so that it does not abridge the great fundamental rights belonging, under the Constitution, to all citizens, may grant or withhold such civil rights as it pleases; all that is required is that, in this respect, its laws shall be impartial.
quote by Lyman Trumbull
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Minorities have a right to appeal to the Constitution as a shield against such oppression.
quote by James K. Polk
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Object
You know you turn me on
Eyes so white and legs so long
But don't try to talk to me
I won't listen to your lies
You're just an object in my eyes
You're just an object in my eyes
Sophisticated smile
You seduce in such fine style
But don't try to fool me
'cause i can see through your disguise
You're just an object in my eyes
You're just an object in my eyes
But i don't mind
I just don't care
I've got no objection
To you touching me there
Object object
Object object
Object object
Object object
You know just what to do
Lick your lips
And i want you
But don't try to hold me
'cause i don't want any ties
You're just an object in my eyes
You're just an object in my eyes
But i don't mind
I just don't care
I've got no objections
To you touching me there
You're just an object object
Object object
You're just an object
song performed by by Cure
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The fact disclosed by a survey of the past that majorities have been wrong must not blind us to the complementary fact that majorities have usually not been entirely wrong.
quote by Herbert Spencer
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sonnet-Restrain me Lord...
Restrain me Lord from seeking revenge first;
Oh, let me pray instead for all my foes;
Restrain me Lord from calling them accursed;
Oh, let me forgive them who caused my woes.
Restrain me Lord from rash judgement of all;
Let man not judge his brethren in wrong ways;
Restrain me Lord from ignoring thy call;
Oh, let me spend aright my earthly days.
Restrain me Lord from doing evil things;
Oh, let me nurture virtues and do good;
Restrain me Lord from Satanic likings;
Oh, give me grace to take part in thy food.
Restrain me Lord from doing mortal sins,
Of soul; I neither can destain or rinse.
poem by John Celes
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And therefore, for the sake of my mater, without any regard for my own, I hope all those that have a due regard for our constitution and for the rights and prerogatives of the crown, without which our constitution can not be preserved, will be against this motion.
quote by Robert Walpole
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It is unfortunate that Americans are no longer aware of what the constitution says and what their rights are. Because of that, we are often very passive about what happens when the government violates those rights.
quote by James Bovard
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Constitution guarantees us our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That's all. It doesn't guarantee our rights to charity.
quote by Jesse Ventura
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The real object of those who resorted to Secession, as well as those who sustained it, was not to overthrow the Government of the United States but to perpetuate the principles upon which it was founded. The object in quitting the Union was not to destroy, but to save the principles of the Constitution.
quote by Alexander Hamilton Stephens
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dont You Think It's Time?
children have rights,
women have rights.
lovers have rights.
people of all religions,
and even atheists have rights.
people of all colors,
speaking every language have rights.
trees and rivers have rights.
cats and dogs have rights.
cattle have rights,
homeless people have rights.
prisoners have rights.
democrats and republicans have rights,
even socialists have rights.
the jobless have rights,
old people have rights...
and the hungry have
the right to be fed!
damnit! dont you think it's time?
poem by Eric Cockrell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved and the rich need no protection: they have many friends and few enemies.
quote by Wendell Phillips
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened. Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. … We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution. The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.
quote by John F. Kennedy
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons. Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.
quote by Abraham Lincoln
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The very purpose of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution is to protect minority rights against majority voters. Every court decision that strikes down discriminatory legislation, including past Supreme Court decisions, affirming the fundamental rights to marry the person you love, overrules a majority decision.
quote by David Boies
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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We so Great
we so great
we all want
to be somebody
seeking him
in the moon,
in the star,
in the sun
we so great
we all want
to be somebody
seeking him
till the ends
of the universe
in ourselves,
in friends and foes
in the almighty,
we so great
we all want
to be somebody
some do it right
some do it half right
some just plain all wrong -
not an echo of themselves
we so great
we all want
to be somebody
despite all the odds
the rights learn
from half rights
and the wrongs learn
from all wrongs
we so great
we get the world going
with all the rights
wrongs, half rights
and half wrongs
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Constitution Visits
Things would be made much more explicit,
If those of leadership made constitution visits.
And saw and read and comprehend
What that doctrine says
To a nation of men and women!
No one needs to be Christian, Black or Jew
To uphold those rights for me or you!
No one needs to be Catholic, Baptist or 'Witness'
To live a life on this land that was not created for this!
Somehow somewhere someone thought of greed.
And represented the constitution for this purpose to feed!
Someone made it Christian and began to use a Bible.
Someone began making laws that from our constitution...
Was not viable!
We are fighting for the right to change thoughts of others,
When the understanding of what exists...
Has been twisted to make liable to stir up others' troubles!
Nothing that is done today,
Is from a constitution much abused that is reliable to use,
In the hands of those who choose it to confuse!
And where do the Puritans and Quakers fit in?
Believers and founders who arrived without documentation!
Things would be made much more explicit...
If those in roles of position,
Made a few more constitution visits!
Instead of surpressing realities in distress!
Creating not unity...
But a world in a conflicting mess!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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