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Hugo Black Biography

Hugo Lafayette Black (February 27, 1886 – September 25, 1971) was an American politician and jurist who served as a Democratic United States Senator and represented Alabama in the Senate from 1927 to 1937, and served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1937 to 1971. Black was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 63 to 16 (6 Democratic Senators and 10 Republican Senators voted against him). He was the first of nine Roosevelt nominees to the Court, and he outlasted all except for William O. Douglas. Black is widely regarded as one of the most influential Supreme Court justices in the 20th century.

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Hugo Black Quotes

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.

Country, Elect, Man, Party, Writing

In my view, far from deserving condemnation for their courageous reporting, the New York Times, the Washington Post and other newspapers should be commended for serving the purpose that the Founding Fathers saw so clearly.

Commended, Father, Fathers, Founding, New York, Views

We believe trial judges confronted with disruptive, contumacious, stubbornly defiant defendants must be given sufficient discretion to meet the circumstances in each case.

Believe, Circumstances, Contumacious, Judging, Trials

An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment.

Religious, Political, Guarantees, Unconditional, Pleases, Amendment

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.

Country, Writing, Thinking, Commands, Amendment

We repeat and again reaffirm that neither a State nor the Federal Government can constitutionally force a person 'to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. ' Neither can constitutionally pass laws or impose requirements which aid all religions as against nonbelievers, and neither can aid those religions based on a belief in the existence of God as against those religions founded on different beliefs.

Belief, Different, Government, Law, Religion

Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.

Responsibility, Government, Land, Deceiving, Among

Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.

Peace, War, Government, Unrestrained, Deception, Expose

The Framers of the Constitution knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny.

Friendship, Enemy, Speech, Constitution, Tyranny, Free

Laws are made to protect the trusting as well as the suspicious

Law, Laws, Made, Protect, Trusting

In my judgment the people of no nation can lose their liberty so long as a Bill of Rights like ours survives and its basic purposes are conscientiously interpreted, enforced and respected so as to afford continuous protection against old, as well as new, devices and practices which might thwart those purposes. I fear to see the consequences of the Court's practice of substituting its own concepts of decency and fundamental justice for the language of the Bill of Rights as its point of departure in interpreting and enforcing that Bill of Rights.

Decency, Fundamental, Law, Practice, Practices, Rights

When I was 40, my doctor advised me that a man in his 40s shouldn't play tennis. I heeded his advice carefully and could hardly wait until I reached 50 to start again.

Funny, Sports, Humor, Reached, Carefully, 40S

The First Amendment's language leaves no room for inference that abridgments of speech and press can be made just because they are slight. That Amendment provides, in simple words, that "Congress shall make no law. . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. " I read "no law. . . abridging" to mean no law abridging.

Mean, Simple, Law, Abridging, Amendment, Leaves

The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people.

Effectively, Government, Inform, Paramount, People, Responsibility

Freedom to publish means freedom for all and not for some. Freedom to publish is guaranteed by the constitution but freedom to continue to prevent others from publishing is not.

Mean, Justice, Constitution, Guaranteed, Freedom, Publish

The layman's constitutional view is that what he likes is constitutional and that which he doesn't like is unconstitutional.

Views, Society, Likes, Like, Unconstitutional

The word 'security' is a broad, vague generality whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the First Amendment. The guarding of military and diplomatic secrets at the expense of informed representative government provides no real security. . . .

Military, Real, Government, Invoked, Provides, Secrets

When the power, prestige, and financial support of government is placed behind a particular religious belief, the indirect coercive pressure upon religious minorities to conform to the prevailing officially approved religion is plain.

Religious, Government, Support, Conform, Indirect, Religion

No higher duty, or more solemn responsibility, rests upon this Court than that of translating into living law and maintaining this constitutional shield deliberately planned and inscribed for the benefit of every human being subject to our Constitution-of whatever race, creed or persuasion.

Life, Responsibility, Race, Human, Duty

The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose, aiming at something outside self.

Self, Lasting Happiness, Purpose, Condition, Life

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