Elijah Cummings Quotes

The privilege against self-incrimination is one of the great landmarks in man’s struggle to make himself civilized.

The critical point is that the Constitution places the right of silence beyond the reach of government.

I've learned a long time ago if you don't have anything to hide, you shouldn't be pleading the Fifth, and most Americans get it.

I refuse to answer on the ground that this might be incriminating.

I had the right to remain silent... but I didn't have the ability.

[The defendant] has an absolute, unqualified right to compel the State to investigate its own case, find its own witnesses, prove its own facts, and convince the jury through its own resources. Throughout the process, the defendant has a fundamental right to remain silent, in effect challenging the State at every point to “Prove it!”

Liberals are stalwart defenders of civil liberties - provided we're only talking about criminals.

Listen, when somebody says, 'I take the fifth,' well, you know, they did something, OK? Why else would they take the fifth?

Use of a mentally ill person's involuntary confession is antithetical to the notion of fundamental fairness embodied in the due process clause.

You do not have to talk to the FBI. You have no obligation to talk to the FBI, even if you are not a citizen. Never meet with them or answer any questions without an attorney present.

The 5th Amendment is an old friend and a good friend. It is one of the great landmarks in man's struggle to be free of tyranny, to be decent and civilized.

We have a system of jurisprudence. You are innocent until proven guilty. You have a right to counsel. And you have a right to hospitalization if you are ill. That is our system. And it's what makes this country special and what makes this country great.

Only the mob takes the Fifth.

Can you tell me what's more unconstitutional than taking away from the people of America their Fifth Amendment rights, their Fourteenth Amendment rights, and the right to equal protection under the law?

Experience has taught me that privacy truly is the touchstone of our criminal justice system.

I'm a lawyer. The right to life is important.

The Constitution has a good share of deliberately open-ended guarantees, like rights to due process of law, equal protection of the law, and freedom from unreasonable searches.

The United States government can indict you on something, and now you've got to prove your innocence. And that's not the Constitution of the United States.

It is anomalous to hold that in order to convict a man the police cannot extract by force what is in his mind, but can extract what is in his stomach.

Officers are taught to use all the tricks and lies that courts permit within the scope of the Fifth Amendment's shield against self-incrimination.

The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.

Well, if I used the privilege of self-incrimination at that time, I must have felt that perhaps there might be something that might incriminate me in answering.

Our country is wounded and bleeding now if we don't know whether or not habeas corpus exists.

He has called for a repeal of the Fifth Amendment as it affects the right of private property.

My office has been one of the most scrupulous in the country with regard to the protection of individual rights. I've been on record for years in law journals and books as championing the rights of the individual against the oppressive power of the state.