John Cornyn Quotes

I believe that freedom of speech and freedom of religion go hand-in-hand in America.

Freedom of the press and of religious opinion should be inviolate.

We cannot permit any inquisition either within or without the law or apply any religious test to the holding of office. The mind of America must be forever free.

If America has a civic religion, the First Amendment is its central article of faith.

This country has gotten seriously off track under the Supreme Court when it went so far as to limit the right of even private citizens to freely express their religious views in public.

Freedom of religion is a principle that is central to our Nation's Declaration of Independence. Congress has taken this positive step to protect our freedom to express allegiance to America's flag and the ideals it represents.

Let's let everybody believe what they want to believe. And that means, P.C. police, don't you be coming down on people who believe in God and who believe in Jesus.

I believe that nothing enjoys a higher estate in our society than the right given by the First and Fourteenth Amendments freely to practice and proclaim one's religious convictions.

Really, at a time when they're debating when and where a nativity scene can be used, this is the kind of stuff we need to have out there - outside of the church.

I'm just confused as to where we lost that in America because it is everyone's God-given right to think the way they think and that's fine. That's why our ancestors came here to America, to believe what they want, pray how they want and follow a religion with whoever they want.

The freedom allowed in the United States to all sorts of inquiry and discussion necessarily leads to a diversity of opinion, which is seen not only in their being different denominations, but different opinions also in the same denomination.

We must not, under the pretext of secularism, chase God out of every public expression in society.

No political party can or ought to exist when one of its corner-stones is opposition to freedom of thought and to the right to worship God.

Unbelievers in this country have rights but they don’t have the right to veto everybody else.

Religious and civil liberty are best protected by unbounded freedom of thought.

No chapter in human history has been so largely written in terms of persecution and intolerance as the one dealing with religious freedom. From ancient times to the present day, the ingenuity of man has known no limits in its ability to forge weapons of oppression for use against … those who dare to express or practice unorthodox religious beliefs. And the Jehovah's Witnesses are living proof of the fact that, even in this nation, conceived as it was in the ideals of freedom, the right to practice religion in unconventional ways is still far from secure. Theirs is a militant and unpopular faith, pursued with a fanatical zeal. They have suffered brutal beatings; their property has been destroyed; they have been harassed at every turn by the resurrection and enforcement of little used ordinances and statutes.... To them, along with other present-day religious minorities, befalls the burden of testing our devotion to the ideals and constitutional guarantees of religious freedom. We should therefore hesitate before approving the application of a statute that might be used as another instrument of oppression. Religious freedom is too sacred a right to be restricted or prohibited in any degree without convincing proof that a legitimate interest of the state is in grave danger.

This wicked system is based on freedom of religion and belief and freedom of speech and separation of religion and politics. Democracy is heresy itself.

If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.

Nothing is more important to me, and nothing was more important to our founding fathers, than freedom of religion.

Our First Amendment should preserve the right of Hindus and Muslims to practice their faith.

I don't think we should ever ban anyone based on their religion. That is un-American. It is not good. What the president is doing, everybody needs to realize that what he's doing is saying, 'Let's take a step back. Let's temporarily pause.'

I don't judge people based on their religion. But I judge them based on how they respect the French constitution.

The Constitution has never treated religion as merely another private opinion that government can order people to keep to themselves.

The state has not only the obligation to stay neutral in matters of religion but also to ensure that freedom of thought and conscience of all individuals is protected.

We are a nation built on principles of freedom, and high on the list of freedoms is freedom of religious expression.