Quotations by ...

Justice William O. Douglas (1898-1980) US Supreme Court (1939-75)


Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred.

Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 US 470 (1965) (7 Jun 1965)

Living in Los Angeles is not blameworthy per se.

Lambert v. California (1958)

I would give the broad sweep of the First Amendment full support. I have the same confidence in the ability of our people to reject noxious literature as I have in their capacity to sort out the true from the false in theology, economics, or any other field.

Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, dissenting opinion (1957)

Government should be concerned with anti-social conduct, not with utterances.

Roth vs. United States, 354 U.S. 476, dissenting opinion (1957)

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.

Roth vs. United States, 354 U.S. 476, dissenting opinion (1957)

Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.

The Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1, "The One Un-Amercan Act" (Jan. 1953)

Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience (in this case the judge or jury) that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance.

¶ Dissent, Kingsley Books, Inc. v. Brown, 354 U.S. 436, 447 (1957)

The court ruled 5-4 to allow banning the sale of obscene books.

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedoms.

¶ Dissent, Public Utilities Commission of the District of Columbia v. Pollack, 343 U.S. 451 (1952) (

The 7-1 ruling held that a streetcar company's playing of the radio was constitutional, and that the PUC could regulate same.

As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight. And it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air -- however slight -- lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

¶ Speech to Young Lawyers Section of the Washington State Bar Association (10 Sep. 1976)

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