In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy… Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.
– Justice Hugo Black
US Supreme Court, 1971
…the First Amendment, which tried to put an end to governmental control of religion and of prayer, was not written to destroy either.
– Justice Hugo Black
US Supreme Court, 1962
…the freedoms of speech, press, petition and assembly guaranteed by the First Amendment must be accorded to the ideas we hate or sooner or later they will be denied to the ideas we cherish.
– Justice Hugo Black
US Supreme Court, 1961
…the people of no nation can lose their liberty so long as a Bill of Rights like ours survives and its basic purposes are conscientiously interpreted, enforced and respected…
– Justice Hugo Black
US Supreme Court, 1947
There can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has.
– Justice Hugo Black
US Supreme Court, 1956
Under our constitutional system, courts stand against any winds that blow as havens of refuge for those who might otherwise suffer because they are helpless, weak, outnumbered…
– Justice Hugo Black
US Supreme Court, 1940
When greed and privilege grasp unearned wealth and condemn millions to undeserved poverty and misery, government is useless if it does not curb greed and destroy privilege.
– Senator Hugo Black
US Senate, 1932
Equality under the law to millionaire and pauper, factory owner and worker, is the test of a successful democracy… justice for all and special privilege to none…
– Hugo Black
Clay County Courthouse
Senate Campaign, 1926
