Felix Frankfurter Quotes

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The Constitution requires that Congress treat similarly situated persons similarly

The purpose that brought the fourteenth amendment into being was equality before the law, and equality, not separation, was written into the law.

History has shown us that, on extraordinarily rare occasions, it becomes necessary for the federal government to intervene on behalf of individuals whose 14th Amendment rights to legal due process and equal protection may be violated by a state.

The power to arrest - to deprive a citizen of liberty - must be used fairly, responsibly, and without bias.

The constitution does not provide for first and second class citizens.

A State cannot … deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws.

We do not target on American citizens.

The proposed 14th Amendment allows Congress to correct the unjust legislation of the States, so far that the law which operates upon one man shall operate equally upon all.

The guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color. If both are not accorded the same protection, then it is not equal.

I don’t care about human rights, believe me. There is no due process in my mouth.

I think we ought to leave the law exactly the way it is, the 14th amendment.

Any attempt to single out Islam would be a violation of the Constitution.

The Constitution requires that Congress treat similarly situated persons similarly, not that it engages in gestures of superficial equality.

I went to public school on Long Island, and it seemed every year we were being taught that you had a right to a fair trial and a right to confront your accuser.

The beauty of our court system is that anybody can enter the court and sue. Uh, you have to be appointed to be in the Executive Branch. You have to be elected to be in the Legislative Branch, but anybody can go into court.

I'm an American. I have constitutional rights.

The 14th Amendment was recognized right away to be problematic. The concept of person was both too narrow and too broad, and the courts went to work to overcome both of those flaws.

It's terribly important that we extend the promise of equality that the Supreme Court and that the district court articulated in the DOMA case and in the Perry case to all Americans in all 50 states.

Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any new law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities.

I cannot support a measure that chooses to protect some women and not others.

Put simply, no one in state government can create new specially protected classes except the General Assembly with the concurrence of the Governor.

You can't keep treating people differently under the law because of their differences. That's not America. I dare say that's not even a good conservative value. We're all supposed to have an equal shot.

If Trump's actions as President reflect his campaign rhetoric, the ACLU and other capable organizations like it will be critical for defending the Bill of Rights for all Americans.

Standing up on the right to trial by jury is something that, really, a lot of people should agree with, you know, both on the Right and the Left.