Top 55 Civil Liberties Quotes

I believe that all forms of socialism have been proven over time to result in a loss of both economic and civil liberties, with increasing poverty.

How can you be conservative and justify wiretapping people without a warrant? We’re supposed to be the party of personal freedom and civil liberties.

I like Mitt Romney as a person. I think he’s a dignified person. But I have no common ground on economics. He doesn’t worry about the Federal Reserve. He doesn’t worry about foreign policy. He doesn’t talk about civil liberties, so I would have a hard time to expect him to ever invite me to campaign with him.

In the year 2010, Kenya adopted a new constitution. With that constitution, we further secured the human rights and civil liberties of our citizens and entrenched constitutional governance and justice.

I’m witnessing the problems that the federal government is passing down in terms of drones, in violation of our civil liberties, spying on our citizens, death panels in the form of the government taking over the health care system and the national debt they’re just saddling our grandchildren with.

National security is the first duty of government but we are also committed to reversing the substantial erosion of civil liberties.

We believe that government in Britain is there to protect people from terrorism and from the worst criminality, but never at the expense of our civil liberties and the basic tenets of our legal system.

I believe in strong civil liberties and a government that intervenes if and only if there is a structural failure that private actions generally cannot solve.

If you know anything about what a lot of the senior leaders at Amazon do in their free time, they spend a lot of time on civil liberties. It’s something that’s very important to me and I think a lot of my peers.

Terrorism is escalating to the point that Americans soon may have to choose between civil liberties and more intrusive means of protection.

With the death of bin Laden, it’s finally time for Congress to bring back the pre-9-11 legal norm, before we decided it was okay to toss out our civil liberties if the ‘bad guys‘ were scary enough.

I finally had to go to the American Civil Liberties Union here in northern California to get my reply published to what I considered to be a hatchet job done by Stanley Crouch.

Many members of the Hollywood community are very liberal and they value their civil liberties more than they value life. I disagree with that.

For far too long the American public and business sector have kept their silence as civil liberties have been whittled away by statutory and regulatory measures.

The American Civil Liberties Union has a reputation for serving as a ‘guardian of liberty,’ protecting our privacy and the First Amendment rights of speech, association and assembly.

The seemingly omnipresent storm clouds hanging over the Constitution often make it hard to find a silver lining. Every day, the front page of The Drudge Report is littered with stories of government assaults on our civil liberties – from local government officials all the way up to the Oval Office.

I’m going to make the claim that I’m stronger than Obama when it comes to civil liberties, and I’m going to make the claim that I’m stronger than Romney when it comes to dollars and cents.

Using a broad brushstroke, I think Libertarian – most of America are socially accepting and fiscally responsible. I’m in that category. I think, broadly speaking, that’s a Libertarian. A Libertarian is going to be somebody who‘s really strong on civil liberties.

Even though some in our government may claim that civil liberties must be compromised in order to protect the public, we must be wary of what we are giving up in the name of fighting terrorism.

Liberals are stalwart defenders of civil liberties – provided we’re only talking about criminals.

With the passing away of Mr Tarkunde, India has lost the father of the Civil Liberties movement in the country.

I know that we will be judged in history by not only how we disrupt terrorism but how we protect the civil liberties and constitutional rights of all Americans, even Americans who don’t wish us well. We must do all these things exceptionally well.

The spine of the FBI is the rule of law. The spine of the FBI is a commitment to doing the right thing, in the right way, while protecting civil liberties.

I believe we should come down very firmly on the guilty without infringing the civil liberties of the innocent, like publishing mobile phone bills.

In 2008, Obama rode to victory in good part by wearing the openness face, casting the Bush administration as intrusive, secretive hawks who had little regard for individual privacy or civil liberties.

It’s been vindicating to see the reaction from lawmakers, judges, public bodies around the world, civil liberties activists who have said it’s true that we have a right to at least know the broad outlines of what our government’s doing in our name and what it’s doing against us.

Since I became chairman, I’ve tried to turn EFF into civil liberties and responsibilities.

We will not let terrorists change our way of life; we will not live in fear; and we will not undermine the civil liberties that characterize our Democracy.

For some reason, I seem to be bothered whenever I see acts of injustice and assaults on people’s civil liberties. I imagine what I write in the future will follow in that vein. Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction.

The Inspector General issued six reviews and reports on actions taken based on provisions of the act. In those six reports, the IG found that not one violation of an individual’s civil liberties – a total of zero – had taken place since the act was instituted.

For as Jews, the problem happens to be more urgent and vital than for others; because the destruction of religion on America will involve the destruction also of the religious training of freedom; and with that our civil liberties.

I was on the state board of directors of the American Civil Liberties Union.

I believe that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act must be reformed. We must improve the American public’s confidence in, and perception of, our national security programs, by increasing transparency, strengthening oversight, and safeguarding civil liberties.

Liberal Democrats in government will not follow the last Labour government by sounding the retreat on the protection of civil liberties in the United Kingdom. It continues to be essential that our civil liberties are safeguarded, and that the state is not given the powers to snoop on its citizens at will.

There is a need to accept a limited disruption of civil liberties in order to penetrate terror.

We must erase bin Laden’s ugly legacy, not extend it: by ending the Patriot Act‘s erosion of our civil liberties, we can protect the freedoms that make America worth fighting for.

As for civil liberties, any one who is not vigilant may one day find himself living, if not in a police state, at least in a police city.

We must protect the very things that make America so special – most certainly including our civil liberties. But we cannot do so without strong national security and a thoughtful and informed discourse.

Do you care about climate justice? Are you about women‘s rights and women’s reproductive rights? Do you care about civil liberties and the Voting Rights Act? There are so many opportunities for people to go back and be inspired and plug into their own community.

While everyone is focused on security and civil liberties, Trump‘s Cabinet of billionaires will try to quietly push through even more extreme measures to enrich themselves and their class, like dismantling Social Security or auctioning off major pieces of government for profit.

I worked at the New York Civil Liberties Union as a starving actor in the early ’80s. I was in love with what they were doing.

America will be far safer if we reduce the chances of a terrorist attack in one of our cities than if we diminish the civil liberties of our own people.

If you don’t believe this election is important, if you think you can sit it out, take a moment to think about the Supreme Court justices that Donald Trump would nominate and what that would mean to civil liberties, equal rights, and the future of our country.

I first met Mr Tarkunde in 1976 during the Emergency, when Civil Liberties had been extinguished and the Habeas Corpus case was being heard by the Supreme Court, which would decide whether one could even approach the courts against illegal detention by the State, during the Emergency.

The beauty of our country is that when it was founded that they took some time to lay out civil liberties in the first 10 Amendments – the Bill of Rights. I’m a firm believer in those civil liberties and the ability to have your own opinion.

In the 1880s, people all over the world looked to America for inspiration. Its very existence was proof that it was possible to have a relatively free and peaceful country. No income tax, no foreign wars, no welfare state, no intrusions on civil liberties.

Since 9/11, the Bush administration has used that tragic event as a justification to rip up our constitution and our civil liberties. And I honestly believe that one or two 9/11s, and martial law will be declared in our country and we’re inching towards a police state.

You can gesture at the transnational problem of Islamist terrorism all you like, but it’s just hot air unless you invest in proper security on the ground in your own country, with the right safeguards to civil liberties.

But 18 years after the passage of the Civil Liberties Act, there still remains unfinished work to completely rectify and close this regrettable chapter in our Nation’s history.

I believe in civil liberties for homosexuals. I guess I’d have to say I’d draw the line at letting them teach in the schools.

Well, take the evolution of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It began as hackers‘ rights. Then it became general civil liberties of everybody – government stay away.

The arc of American history almost inevitably moves toward freedom. Whether it’s Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, the expansion of women’s rights or, now, gay rights, I think there is an almost-inevitable march toward greater civil liberties.

We have got to protect privacy rights. We have got to protect our God-given, constitutionally protected civil liberties, and we are not doing that in the federal government. The Department of Homeland Security, as well as the TSA, is a great culprit in being a Gestapo-type organization.

I have very real concerns about the civil liberties implications of ultimately requiring every resident to submit themselves for compulsory fingerprinting or some other biometric test.

What are we fighting the terrorists for if we ourselves do not even stand up for democracy – civil liberties and fundamental rights – which includes independence of the judiciary?