Herb Kelleher Quotes

There is no major political issue in the country that does not end up as a legal issue.

The notion that the First Amendment has no limitations whatsoever is balderdash.

Every time you pass a law, it is a little bite out of freedom.

You watch the Supreme Court in action on these cases, and they are a conflicted court. However, when it comes to speech issues generally, the court has been protective.

It wouldn't be fair to say that conservatives cherish property the way liberals cherish equality. But it would be fair to say that the takings clause is the conservatives' recipe for judicial activism just as they say liberals have misused the equal protection clause.

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

The way that same-sex marriage should reach the federal level is that it absolutely should be decided by the Supreme Court as quickly as possible. It's a 14th Amendment issue. There's no argument about it.

I sort of thought the framers of the Constitution were talking about the rights of individuals, not corporate entities.

The 'takings' clause of the Fifth Amendment is for conservatives what the equal protection clause of the 14th is for liberals.

The court has said you are entitled to robust speech on public sidewalks, even insulting speech.

A law can be both economic folly and constitutional.

The First Amendment is not without limits.

Laws protecting the United States flag do not cut away at the freedom of speech guaranteed in the First Amendment... Congress made this position clear upon passage of the Flag Protection Act of 1989, which prohibited desecration of the flag.

Implicit in the history of the 1st Amendment is the rejection of obscenity as utterly without redeeming social importance.

The Republic city seal pervasively invades the daily lives of non-Christians and sends a message that they are outsiders. The Constitution forbids such a result.

There is a constitutional right to travel. But when we pass speed limits and seat belt safety requirements … no one accuses us of “travel control.” Ignore the labels; the facts are your friends.

In matters relating to business, finance, industrial and labor conditions, health and the public welfare, great leeway is now granted the legislature, for there is no guarantee in the Constitution that the status quo will be preserved against regulation by government.

We don't have the right under the 1st Amendment to act as the national program director.

When twenty years ago a vague terror went over the earth and the word socialism began to be heard, I thought and still think that fear was translated into doctrines that had no proper place in the Constitution or the common law.

We have a great deal of freedom in America, but there are mechanisms that inhibit us from using it.

Like the government, corporations must be bound with the chains of the Constitution, and especially of the Bill of Rights.

Perish commerce, let the constitution live!

There is no indication - either in the text of the Constitution or in our cases interpreting it - that a separate judicial category exists for the American flag alone. ... We decline ... therefore to create for the flag an exception to the … principles protected by the First Amendment.

This pro-choice issue is a legal issue that should be decided by the courts.

The First Amendment is the First Amendment for a reason - our most cherished right. But it often creates muddy and uncomfortable situations, ones that are the source of great drama and national self-reflection.