Quotes About Constitution

Virginia had taken the decisive step—this large and influential state ratified the Constitution but was committed to use her great influence to demand a bill of rights. The remaining states, both large (New York and North Carolina) and small (Rhode Island and the future state of Vermont), would ratify the Constitution and follow Virginia in insisting that individual rights be declared.

Stephen P. Halbrook

Only "Persons professing the Christian Religion ought forever to enjoy equal Rights and Privileges in this State."142 A critic commented that "there are some good things in the Delaware constitution, which are evidently borrowed from the Pennsylvanian, but mangled like a school-boy's abridgement of a Spectator's paper. Some of their bill of rights, explained by tories, might prevent all American defence.

Madison thus saw the rights he would propose, such as freedom of the press and keeping and bearing arms, as not involving the structure or powers of government but as involving private rights. The "fallacy" of the English Declaration was that it was a mere legislative act that Parliament could repeal; by contrast, the American bill of rights would be part of the Constitution and not subject to repeal by Congress

Jefferson continued about some of its "important principles: The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, . . . that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press.

There is a single reference to the members of the House of Representatives being "chosen every second Year by the People of the several States," but this is qualified by the additional clause that "the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature." That meant the voters rather than the people at large.

Pennsylvania was the first to declare that "the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves, and the state.

the Supreme Court in McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) added: "The right to keep and bear arms was considered no less fundamental by those who drafted and ratified the Bill of Rights." For that proposition, Justice Samuel Alito, author of the opinion, referred the reader to five chapters of this book.

A general militia composed of all citizens capable of bearing arms was seen as superior to a select militia consisting of a selective group, which bordered on a standing army, the bane of liberty.

It would be rather curious if "the people" means only such persons as the government selects. To suggest that "the right of the people" means only a command issued by a government to persons appointed by the government demeans the very nature of a bill of rights.

Our Founding Fathers crafted a constitutional Republic for the first time in the history of the world because they were shaping a form of government that would not have the failures of a democracy in it, but had the representation of democracy in it.

IF THIS COUNTRY should ever reach the point," the president was saying, while I sat on the floor with that bowl of popcorn between my legs, "where any man or group of men, by force or threat of force, could long defy the commands of our courts and Constitution, no law would stand free from doubt, no judge would be sure of his writ and no citizen would be safe from his neighbors.

When the Bill of Rights was written, no one owned a MAG5100, 100-round magazine for an M-16. The concept of a mass slaughter carried out over a matter of minutes was incomprehensible.

I wish the press were paying more attention to the erosion of the Constitution and the slippery slope that we're getting into, by giving up the right of the Congress to talk about when and how and where we go to war.

Reform and exchange in English poetry are as slow as in the British constitution itself.

My friends in the opposition have forgotten that the constitution of the Philippines was amended in 1973 with their participation. The constitution mandates the administration, including the Batasan, or legislature, to convert slowly into a semiparliamentary form of government. The president in such a situation can issue decrees and edicts.

Our Constitution is designed to change very slowly. It's a feature, not a bug.

We believe in individual initiative, personal responsibility, opportunity, freedom, small government, the Constitution. These principles, these American principles are key to getting our economy back to being successful and leading the world.

We should admit rather that power produces knowledge (and not simply by encouraging it because it serves power or by applying it because it is useful); that power and knowledge directly imply one another; that there is no power relation without the correlative constitution of a field of knowledge, nor any knowledge that does not presuppose and constitute at the same time power relations.

The constitution did indeed guarantee freedom of speech, but the laws punished anything that could be considered an attack on state security

Konstitucija, žinoma, garantuoja žodžio laisvÄ™, bet ?statymai baudžia už bet kÄ…, kas gali bÅ«ti laikoma pasikÄ—sinimu ? valstybÄ—s saugumÄ…. Niekad nežinai, kada valstybÄ— ims Å¡aukti, kad Å¡is ar anas žodis kÄ—sinasi ? jos saugumÄ…. TodÄ—l kompromi­tuojan?ius raÅ¡inius jis nusprendÄ— paslÄ—pti saugioje vietoje.

I love this country because I didn't always have it. Freedom, food, water that is clean, Constitution - these are not things I take for granted.

I love the Constitution and government of this land, but I hate the damned rascals that administer the government.

I arose and spoke substantially as follows: ... I love the government and the constitution of the United States, but I do not love the damned rascals who administer the government.