Justice Hugo L. Black Quote

"Compelling a man by law to pay his money to elect candidates or advocate law or doctrines he is against differs only in degree, if at all, from compelling him by law to speak for a candidate, a party, or a cause he is against. The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands."

by:	Justice Hugo L. Black (1886-1971) US Supreme Court Justice
Source:	IAM v. Street, 367 U.S., 1961
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Categories:	Constitution, Justice
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not shooting the messenger here; A man can not be compelled by law, only by despotic codes, rules, statutes, etc. that do not harmonize with the law of nature or of nature's God.  -- Mike, Norwalk
Compelling a man by law to pay his money...is extortion.  -- J Carlton, Calgary
And to choose! Where is the right to choose in this statement? I'm not trying to shoot the messenger either but "as they wish" doesn't quite say it with the emphasis it deserves and needs today in listing it the FIRST in importance to the free expression of the rest of them. Every right that is controlled by regulation suffers the violation of not only the particular right but every single time the regulation is enforced the right of free choice is violated too. Every, single, time.  -- Anon
Make one negative comment on a college campus about a muslim and all hell breaks loose.  -- jim k, austin
Gee does he mean matching government funds for candidates? How about union dues that are funneled to politicians with out the workers consent?  -- warren, olathe
Warren, thats a drop in the bucket comapred with funds funneled by corporations etc. etc. Truth is Natural Law, absolute, and God has nothing to do with it. Four stars because of it's verbosity.  -- RBESRQ
but each canidate gets federal campaign money from our taxes wither we support that canidate or not  -- cal, lewisville, tx
Giving to the Presidential Election fund on your tax return is purely voluntary.  -- Waffler, Smith
The Fairness Doctrine and those 'Free-Speech Zones' at the Republican conventions come to mind. The idea that elected candidates can take money from those that did not vote for them is a corruption for which no authorization from the People has been given, so it is therefore an usurpation and UNLAWFUL.  -- E Archer, NYC

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