Frances Sissy Farenthold Quotes

As to the media, they are protected by the First Amendment, as they should be.

Speech is an essential mechanism of democracy, for it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people. [...] The right of citizens to inquire, to hear, to speak, and to use information to reach consensus is a precondition to enlightened self-government and a necessary means to protect it. [...] By taking the right to speak from some and giving it to others, the Government deprives the disadvantaged person or class of the right to use speech to strive to establish worth, standing, and respect for the speaker’s voice. The Government may not by these means deprive the public of the right and privilege to determine for itself what speech and speakers are worthy of consideration. The First Amendment protects speech and speaker, and the ideas that flow from each.

I'm not up for changing the Tenth Amendment or the Fourteenth Amendment, the First Amendment or the Second Amendment.

We have a beautiful right in this country, which is freedom of speech.

Free discussion is the only necessary Constitution - the only necessary Law of the Constitution.

People have the right to say what they want to.

We need to defend absolutely the freedom of speech.

We had a responsibility to represent all people whose 1st Amendment rights were at risk

Freedom of speech, freedom to criticize pillars of government, freedom to form parties and freedom of the press within the framework of the constitution are among the absolute rights of the public.

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

The Amendment might have said, “Except in times and situations involving 'clear and present danger' to the national security, Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.” Or it might have read, “Only when, in the judgment of the legislature, the interests of order and security render such action advisable shall Congress abridge the freedom of speech.” But the writers of the Amendment did not adopt either of these phrasings or anything like them.

We do not debar Congress from all action upon the freedom of speech. Legislation that abridges that freedom is forbidden, but not legislation to enlarge and enrich it

After 200 years, the 1st Amendment remains only as strong, or as weak, as the citizens it is designed to protect.

Thankfully, we live in country, unlike Russia, where we have First Amendment rights.

I am a firm supporter of the First Amendment, no matter the views expressed.

The First Amendment does not give you the right to commit a crime.

Honestly, this country was built on freedom of speech and freedom of expression, and when you can no longer do that, then it is no longer based on that, you know.

Americans have fought and died around the globe to protect the right of all people to express their views, even views that we profoundly disagree with. We do not do so because we support hateful speech, but because our founders understood that without such protections, the capacity of each individual to express their own views and practice their own faith may be threatened. We do so because in a diverse society, efforts to restrict speech can quickly become a tool to silence critics and oppress minorities.

Our country as a whole, no less than the Hastings College of Law, values tolerance, cooperation, learning, and the amicable resolution of conflicts. But we seek to achieve those goals through "[a] confident pluralism that conduces to civil peace and advances democratic consensus-building," not by abridging First Amendment rights.

Of the five rights listed in the First Amendment. - religion, speech, press, assembly, petition - the very first right protected is freely exercising our religion.

Think 'free speech,' not 'free beer.'

The basis of democratic freedom is freedom of speech.

If the Bill of Rights was intended to place strict limits on federal power and protect individual and locality from the national government the 14th Amendment effectively defeated that purpose by placing the power to enforce the Bill of Rights in federal hands, where it was never intended to be.

What makes America great is peaceful protests and exercising your constitutional rights.

You have a right to say what you believe, and I have a right.