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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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).
The Minority Government
The wise are in minority.
The rulers are in minority
Rogues too are in minority.
So are captains and militants.
Teachers are in minority.
Bishops are in minority.
Juries too are minority.
So are smugglers and the rich.
Americans are in minority.
Human beings are in minority.
Minority rules the majority.
Minority rides the majority.
Majority yields to minority.
Majority fears the minority,
And loves to play the role of drudgery.
The sign of majority is slavery
23.09.2008
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly held that marriage is one of the most fundamental rights that we have as Americans under our Constitution.
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
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The whole of the Bill of Rights is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of.
quote by Albert Gallatin
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to ""create"" rights. Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting.
quote by William J. Brennan, Jr.
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
quote by Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Equal Rights,2011
equal rights to live,
equal rights to love.
equal rights to believe,
to speak out, to stand up
and be counted.
equal rights to work,
equal rights to study.
equal rights to build.
equal rights to profess faith,
equal rights to pray.
equal rights to give...
equal rights to live,
equal rights to love!
poem by Eric Cockrell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I love the ACLU and I'm concerned now, especially when it comes to our rights, with current politics and the religious community and the Conservative majority or minority - I don't know who they are.
quote by Debbie Harry
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
quote by James Madison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Majesty of the majority
The arrogance of the majority
Kills the freedom of the minority.
The authority of the majority
Checks the progress of the minority.
The humility of the majority
Tends the growth of the minority
The majesty of the majority
Grants the safety of the minority
Let the Babaar majid be rebuilt.
[The majid was an unused mosque built centuries ago in the place of a Hindu temple, and was destructed by the Hindu faith people giving a shock to the country’s secularism]
11.01.2004
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Historically, the judicial branch has often been the sole protector of the rights of minority groups against the will of the popular majority.
quote by Diane Watson
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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Against Their Human Rights
How many times have I heard them say
it’s against his human rights
when a killer goes to court?
Hey, but what about the victim
and his or her family.
Don’t they have human rights too?
Is it only the killers who have human rights?
It really makes you wonder.
They commit a crime against
someone innocent in our society.
Then you get some idiot
starts shouting their punishment
is against their human rights.
Now what would happen if that idiot
lost a family member to some killer?
Would they still be shouting
and waving banners about his human rights?
I sincerely doubt it;
they’d probably say like a lot of us
that the killer has no human rights.
They forfeited them the day
they took someone’s life.
We may forgive them
for what they do,
but they must still take the punishment
the Courts of the land hand down.
13 February 2008
poem by David Harris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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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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Political Arena
It was a political arena that he was in
A political arena where they said he could not win.
He was fighting for the rights of man
Someone had to take a stand.
His religious rights were being denied
They said he was a war activist which was a lie.
He believed in the commandment “thou shall not kill”
They wanted to take away his rights of “ free will”.
So his lawyer went to court, and fought
With everything that he was taught.
He knew he had a battle up ahead
But it was a fight he did not dread.
Civil rights were being denied
Freedom to all should apply.
They went to court the very next day
He knew the jury he would have to sway.
He started debating how he should start
When a deep feeling pierced his heart.
He told the jury: if this had been GODS will
He would have taught us how to kill.
Can you find it in your heart to take another mans life
And leave a person without a husband, family, children, wife.
Those words penetrated deep into their minds.
It did not take them very much time.
“ NOT GUILTY” we the jury do find.
poem by Louis Rams
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Supreme Court, of course, has the responsibility of ensuring that our government never oversteps its proper bounds or violates the rights of individuals. But the Court must also recognize the limits on itself and respect the choices made by the American people.
quote by Elena Kagan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Canadian Polygamy Coming Around The Bend
How many wives should a man be allowed if they change the law,
Three, ten, a hundred and ten or will there be another flaw?
The appointed Supreme Court changed the laws and allowed abortions,
These appointees are quite capable of making more distortions.
Polygamy and religious freedom are now front and center,
Maybe they’ll come to a final conclusion this long winter,
Should a man be allowed a hundred wives or only one?
Come on, let’s face it, the man needs to have a lot of fun.
And the pro choice ladies who got their High Court abortion rights,
Don’t appear to me to be putting up much of a fight,
There’s something seriously wrong here that seems awfully strange,
In equal rights, a woman should have five husbands to arrange,
Nov 28th,2010
poem by James Bredin
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Abortion Clinics May 13 2011
Are Canadians being replaced by those who believe?
That a holocaust of unborn babies is a way to achieve?
And subsequent population reduction will be great?
They even ensure that this subject is never up for debate.
Appointees in the Supreme Court are much higher than god,
With a hidden agenda and a politically correct nod,
Their Supreme Court decision on abortions proved one thing,
Death with dignity is out but abortion holocaust is in.
How does one get an appointment to the Supreme Court?
Is that question too delicate where women are allowed to abort?
But the Supreme Court made that law involving unborn baby deaths,
Babies before they had a chance to take their first breath.
May 13th,2011
poem by James Bredin
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Americans of our own time - minority and majority Americans alike - need the continued guidance that the Voting Rights Act provides. We have come a long way, but more needs to be done.
quote by Elijah Cummings
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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