David Souter Quotes

I don’t see any problem with having proceedings televised. I think it would be good for the public.

I wouldn’t mind having the proceedings of the court sent out on television covering it gavel to gavel. But by the time most of the media do their editing and broadcasting, I’m afraid that the public will see an atypical sampling of the court. It will misinform the public rather than inform.

If you don't think a television news show represents the truth, you can turn off your TV. If you don't think a magazine represents the truth, you can cancel your subscription. You have the right to expose yourself to whatever information you want. But to have the government prescribing what the truth is or limiting the information available for the citizen is contrary to the 1st Amendment.

I certainly think cameras ought to be in courtrooms.

I know the pundits and the news media have carried a lot of commentary about cameras in the courtroom, and there's a lot of controversy about it as a result of the Simpson case. But I have not had enough time to step back and enough time to evaluate that.

I have ventured to write more intimately about my personal life than is customary for a member of the Supreme Court, and with that candor comes a measure of vulnerability.

The day you see a camera come into our courtroom, it's going to roll over my dead body.

It is a mistake to suppose that the Supreme Court is either honoured or helped by being spoken of as beyond criticism. On the contrary, the life and character of its justices should be the objects of constant watchfulness by all, and its judgments subject to the freest criticism.

I will be vigilant to protect the independence and integrity of the Supreme Court, and I will work to ensure that it upholds the rule of law and safeguards those liberties that make this land one of endless possibilities for all Americans.

A license permits broadcasting, but the licensee has no constitutional right to be the one who holds the license or to monopolize a radio frequency to the exclusion of his fellow citizens. There is nothing in the First Amendment which prevents the government from requiring a licensee to share his frequency with others.... There is no sanctuary in the First Amendment for unlimited private censorship operating in a medium not open to all.... It is the right of the viewers and listeners, not the right of the broadcasters, which is paramount.... It is the purpose of the First Amendment to preserve an uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will ultimately prevail, rather than to countenance monopolization of that market, whether it be by the government itself or a private licensee. It is the right of the public to receive suitable access to social, political, esthetic, moral, and other ideas and experiences which is crucial here. That right may not constitutionally be abridged either by Congress or by the FCC.

There is growing use of government intrusion into your creative space…. The government is able to see more deeply into our intellectual lives.

One of the best ways of enslaving a people is to keep them from education... The second way of enslaving a people is to suppress the sources of information, not only by burning books but by controlling all the other ways in which ideas are transmitted.

Many people here are completely unsuitable for shaping public opinion. I am going to weed them out.

The privacy and dignity of our citizens are being whittled away by sometimes imperceptible steps. Taken individually, each step may be of little consequence. But when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a society quite unlike any we have seen – a society in which government may intrude into the secret regions of a [person's] life.

Freedom of expression is guaranteed within the framework of Islamic and national objectives and values.

Trial by television is ... foreign to our system.

... the silly, mean, and cowardly lies that every day are found in the columns of certain newspapers, which violate every instinct of American manliness, and in ghoulish glee desecrate every sacred relation of private life.

The people have a right to know—no, a duty to know—what the army is doing in our name.

Legislatures have no right to set up an inquisition and examine into the private opinions of men.

People have a fundamental right to information about the government, but the right to justice trumps that. Cameras in the courtroom seem to affect behavior.

We are narrowing the field of those who will run for office when we allow them so little privacy.

A labouring man ... read and study halfe his time, and then be at a loss to know what is true and what not. Thus the few have almost ruined the Libberty of the press.

My clothes, my stockings, my wigs were a matter of public discussion …. Columnists asked me about anything and everything—except my job. Women's magazines and women's pages featuring articles about me—sometimes without bothering to interview me. Cartoonist delight in sketching me and my clothes and swelling girth. and always the whispers and speculation about my sex life—how much, and with whom.

American newspapers disregard principles to seize on people, following them into their private lives and laying bare their weaknesses and their vices.

I want to thank all the right-wing organizations out there who tried to stop the film, either from their harassment campaign that didn't work on the theater owners, or going to the FCC to get our ads removed from television, to all the things that have been said on television. It's only encouraged more people to go and see it. We are happy to announce that the efforts of the small-minded few have failed miserably.