Freedom, According to Justice William O. Douglas

The following is an article from Uncle John's Supremely Satisfying Bathroom Reader

William O. "Wild Bill" Douglas (1898 - 1980) was the longest-serving justice in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court. Here's what he has to say about free speech, freedom, and the government:

"The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom."

"It was against a background poignant with memories of evil procedures that our Constitution was drawn."

"As nightfall does not come 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 must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."

"An arrest is not justified by what the subsequent search discloses."

"The framers of the Constitution knew human nature as well as we do. They had lived in dangerous days; they knew the suffocating influence of orthodoxy and standardized thought. They weighed the compulsions for restrained speech and thought against the abuses of liberty. They chose liberty."

"Those who won our independence believed ... liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty."

"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."

"Whatever the reason, words mean what they say."

"What a man thinks is of no concern to government."

"A requirement that literature or act conform to some norm prescribed by an official smacks of an ideology foreign to our system."

"Words uttered under coercion are proof of loyalty to nothing but self-interest."

"Common sense often makes good law."

"When a man knows how to live dangerously, he is not afraid to die. When he is not afraid to die, he is, strangely, free to live."

The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Supremely Satisfying Bathroom Reader.

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