Abe Fortas Quotes

One of the challenges of a democratic government is making sure that even in the midst of emergencies and passions, we make sure that rule of law and the basic precepts of justice and liberty prevail.

Unless the courts have the power to review the legislative and executive decisions of the nation, we do not have the rule of law… If we don’t follow our own rules, our own Constitution, then, my God, what are we fighting for?

Legal process is an essential part of the democratic process.

I think one of the brilliant parts of our democracy is how resilient it is. We are each allowed to have our own beliefs and, as long as we follow the rule of law, we can express them however we'd like. This is a unique characteristic of the best democracies and one I value tremendously.

We will always stand up for rule of law, the right to protest, the right of assembly.

Our government depends upon the rule of law.

Human rights and rule of law are inseparably connected.

The Constitution is the bedrock of all our freedoms; guard and cherish it; keep honor and order in your own house; and the republic will endure.

We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.

Opposition can be useful. Every opposition movement is good and useful if it acts within the law... If there are people who act outside the law, then the state must use legal means to impose law in the interests of the majority. That's the way it's done in the U.S. and that's the way it's done in Russia.

The law can seem remote, arcane, the stuff of specialists. But it isn't, because for those of us who live in democracies, the law begins with us.

We have a First Amendment for good reasons. We need a free press because without an educated electorate we cannot have a functioning democracy.

The principal factors which influenced my life are 1) nonviolent tactics; 2) constitutional means; 3) democratic procedures; 4) respect for human personality; 5) a belief that all people are one.

Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy.

I told the students that we can exert pressure without resorting to violence, and that we can move towards democracy without violence; that way, God will allow it.

The rule of law is the basis for any democracy. And without the rule of law in democracy, you have chaos.

There is nothing more foreign to a civilised and democratic system than preventive detention.

I firmly believe in the rule of law as the foundation for all of our basic rights.

Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered as our prince of peace, of civil rights. We owe him something major that will keep his memory alive.

It is during our most challenging and uncertain moments that our nation's commitment to due process is most severely tested; and it is in those times that we must preserve our commitment at home to the principles for which we fight abroad

Today I am here to defend the right to offend within the bounds of the law.

Freedom depends upon something. The rule of law.

Our birthright under the 1st Amendment is to foster the voices of dissent.

Pakistan is a democracy. We cannot do anything against human rights.

It is ingrained into our national life that the rule of law makes us free.