Earl Warren quotes - page 2

Earl Warren was an American jurist and politician who served as the 14th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. His leadership was instrumental in landmark decisions that advanced civil rights and liberties, including the famous Brown v. Board of Education case. He became known as one of the most influential Chief Justices in American history. Here are 54 of his quotes:

The most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the imperatives of internationalism.

Earl Warren

Legislatures represent people, not acres or trees.

Earl Warren

Life and liberty can be as much endangered from illegal methods used to convict those thought to be criminals as from the actual criminals themselves.

Earl Warren

If Nixon is not forced to turn over tapes of his conversations with the ring of men who were conversing on their violations of the law, then liberty will soon be dead in this nation.

Earl Warren

Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

Earl Warren

Before this distinguished assembly and the world, the bells today proclaim the joyous tidings of the completion of this quietly soaring tower.

Earl Warren

We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

Earl Warren

There is patently no legitimate overriding purpose independent of invidious racial discrimination which justifies this classification. The fact that Virginia prohibits only interracial marriages involving white persons demonstrates that the racial classifications must stand on their own justification, as measures designed to maintain White Supremacy. We have consistently denied the constitutionality of measures which restrict the rights of citizens on account of race. There can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause.

Earl Warren

In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the State has undertaken to provide it, is a right that must be made available to all on equal terms.

Earl Warren

In mid-life the man wants to see how irresistible he still is to younger women. How they turn their hearts to stone and more or less commit a murder of their marriage I just don't know, but they do.

Earl Warren

We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place.

Earl Warren

Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.

Earl Warren

I am unalterably opposed to any species of vigilantes or to any other extra-legal means of a majority exercising its will over a minority.

Earl Warren

I believe the preservation of our civil liberties to be the most fundamental and important of all our governmental problems, because it always has been with us and always will be with us and if we ever permit those liberties to be destroyed, there will be nothing left in our system worthy of preservation.

Earl Warren

The mere fact that he may have answered some questions or volunteered some statements on his own does not deprive him of the right of refrain from answering any further inquiries until he has consulted with an attorney and thereafter consents to be questioned.

Earl Warren

He must be warned prior to any questioning that he has the right to remain silent, that anything he says can be used against him in a court of law, that he has the right to the presence of an attorney, and that, if he cannot afford an attorney one will be appointed for him prior to any questioning if he so desires.

Earl Warren

This concept of "national defense" cannot be deemed an end in itself, justifying any exercise of legislative power designed to promote such a goal.

Earl Warren

You sit up there, and you see the whole gamut of human nature.

Earl Warren

All provisions of federal, state or local law requiring or permitting discrimination in public education must yield.

Earl Warren

There is no requirement that police stop a person who enters a police station and states that he wishes to confess a crime or a person who calls the police to offer a confession because volunteered statements of any kind are not barred by the 5th Amendment.

Earl Warren

I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.

Earl Warren

The old Court you and I served so long will not be worthy of its traditions if Nixon can twist, turn and fashion If Nixon gets away with that, then Nixon makes the law as he goes along - not the Congress nor the courts.

Earl Warren