"Whenever you give up rights, it's near impossible to get them back."
"Ensuring compliance with constitutional rights is imperative, as it prevents the perpetuation of practices that undermine these fundamental liberties."
"One of their cornerstones...is freedom of speech and it's the ability for people to say whatever they want provided it's not...violent in nature."
"The default is freedom until there's a good reason to limit that freedom."
"I support the right to protest, I support the right to peaceful protest."
"What it takes to hold police accountable is not just about preserving our rights and civil liberties, but expanding them."
"The Fourth Estate... is the sine qua non for our liberties and protecting our procedures in a democracy."
"The United States must not adopt the tactics of the enemy, means are as important as ends, crisis makes it tempting to ignore the wise restraints that make men free."
"The right to protest, that's the only part of that that is freedom."
"I think we need to expand freedom in this country, not restrict it."
"Our civil liberties are being excessively curbed in the name of counter-terrorism."
"A raft of measures that will take away still further freedoms from the British people."
"The next election will be about Muslims and will be about the taking away of civil liberties in this country."
"I've been a civil libertarian all my life. I've never deviated from my principles."
"The benefit to allowing freedom of speech for all, even speech with which we disagree, otherwise it's not freedom of speech."
"If the government is going to be firing Predator missiles at American citizens, surely the American public has a right to know who's being targeted and why."
"The rights we lose to every emergency law that passes because we are afraid, we never get those back."
"The bill exceeds the rightful authority to which governments are limited by the essential distinction between civil and religious functions."
"Our Constitution tells the government what it can and cannot do. Our Bill of Rights, those first 10 amendments, were put in place to further protect the citizens of the United States, to protect the rights that are given to us by God but thankfully enshrined to us in our Constitution."
"The Fourth Amendment is not a suggestion; it's not a recommendation; it's not a proposal. It is the foundational law of the land, it is a bedrock constitutional right."
"It is precisely in times of emergency that free speech becomes most important."
"Without our freedom and civil liberties, we lose what is at the heart of what it means to be an American."
"I, Senator Ted Cruz, remind us we're one vote away from seeing our religious liberty vote stripped away, from our free speech stripped away, from our Second Amendment being stripped away. Just one vote."
"If you think that Trudeau, a person who is willing to freeze assets over economic damage to target political enemies without due process, isn't laying the brickwork for a system in which labor power is incapable of mobilizing, then you are woefully, insanely naive."
"State surveillance tends to do very little to prevent crime and actually tends to do a lot to prevent civil liberties."
"They don't like competition. The government is here to squelch every piece of competition. They can spy on you, they can speed in their cruisers, they can steal your wealth, but as soon as you start doing what they do, they're gonna count you as a criminal."
"The most fundamental right in America is the right to vote and have it counted, and look, it's under assault."
"This is the greatest infringement of civil liberties in our history."
"More security with less intrusion on people's civil liberties... that's the trade-off that you want."
"We absolutely must defend our civil liberties."
"We absolutely cannot allow the government to impose another Patriot Act-style post-9/11 absurd encroachment of our civil liberties."
"This is about civil liberties and is about people's ability to protect themselves."
"What is at stake here is can the government compel Apple to write software that we believe would make hundreds of millions of customers vulnerable around the world, including the US, and also trample civil liberties that are at the basic foundation of what this country was made on."
"The US Supreme Court has eviscerated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, giving the police license to stop, frisk, search just about anyone, anywhere without a shred of evidence of any criminal activity."
"Our rights and liberties cannot be taken for granted."
"Freedom of speech includes both the right to speak freely and the right to refrain from speaking at all."
"The rights aren't granted to you by your government; you have those rights to begin with."
"Free speech only matters if people you don't like are allowed to say things you don't like."
"Freedom of speech must be fiercely protected from attempts to shut it down."
"Freedom of Association and freedom of speech...come into deep and abiding conflicts."
"We are allowing a huge amount of government overreach when it comes to civil liberties."
"If you don't have freedom of speech, you don't really have anything anymore. You're going to lose everything."
"The concept of a vaccine passport is not just some matter of administrative convenience. It is a first step in a major redefinition of the relationship between the citizen and the state."
"We're a free country. If somebody wants to be gay or trans, that's their business."
"When you say 'I have nothing to hide,' you're saying 'I don't care about this right.' You're saying 'I don't have this right because I've got to the point where I have to justify it.'"
"Fewer people should be terrorized by the state for things they have posted on Twitter that left-wing activists disagree with."
"Before education was put under the thumb of government, we had some of the brightest, most well-read people in the entire world."
"Our message to the government is simple it's time to meet peaceful people alone if you believe the government is so damn essential we have to go"
"Our rights are given to the only person to whom we kneel, which is God. The government doesn't grant rights."
"Freedom of speech is the bedrock of Western liberties."
"The war on terror is now the war on America, and it's the intelligence agencies waging it against American citizens."
"My concern is if the government stifles this, criminalizes it, and sways public opinion, they will have won."
"Most of those views got hammered out by the beginning of the fourth century."
"There are rights in the Constitution that we have that are not enumerated."
"As government tries to become heavier handed, it is going to naturally impede on the natural rights we have."
"We must resist government run amuck taking advantage of a crisis. This is how your Liberty dies. Stand up, America, and resist!"
"We're closer than we've ever been in recent history to actual martial law."
"You can't compel people to give ID without reasonable articulate suspicion."
"Free speech does require us to put up with people who are wrong."
"In an allegedly free country, where officials carry the title of public servant, it is at least just as much of their responsibility to show respect to us as it is ours to show respect to them."
"If an adult cannot make decisions about their own health and their own consciousness, always with the proviso of while doing no harm to others, if they can't make those decisions, then they're not free in any meaningful sense."
"If the health risk is severe enough, then your civil liberties are optional."
"Our freedoms are being eroded while we speak. People are being fired from their jobs for speaking their mind." - Andrew Clavin
"Rights and freedoms that you take for granted will be lost by people that don't believe in them."
"We're not going to tolerate losing our civil liberties for these wars anymore."
"There's no reason why I would ever vote to restrict actual constitutional rights from gay people, that's silly."
"People have the right to their views and the freedom to express them."
"It's a Clarion call for everyone who values individual liberty."
"Freedom of speech does include blasphemy, satire, and insults to a religion."
"I have a right to record my public officials while they're working on our tax dollars and while we're conducting business. This is a public building."
"We are all born free, with real natural, unalienable, god-given inherent human rights."
"Look, I really love my liberties and I'm very fierce about defending them."
"Covet has exposed the awesome power that can be misused by government officials."
"The loss of basic freedoms has been nothing less than breathtaking."
"Those who would give up freedom in exchange for security deserve neither and will lose both."
"Marginalized people benefit the most from free speech."
"We want to protect Free Speech, clearly we want to have a free exchange of ideas."
"We live in a constitutional republic, and we have rights."
"Privacy isn't about having somewhere to do drug deals; it's a basic tenet of modern human living."
"Our rights will be restricted, and that's not healthy for a free country."
"The digital dollar will just make it easier for America to enslave its own citizens."
"When all three branches of government agree that these programs must end, it seems clear to me that they're not a legitimate defense of our freedoms."
"Lockdown decision was of huge weight; every restriction of liberty was felt deeply."
"I voted for someone who respects my rights to bear arms and my civil liberties."
"Civil liberties should not be compromised in the name of pandemic response."
"You don't have to stand for the pledge of allegiance, you don't have to say it, you can stomp on the flag and burn it on the ground. This is a place for you to be your best."
"The right of the people to protest and resist tyranny is paramount."
"State officials have violated the free speech and free exercise rights of religious Americans by treating religious gatherings and speech differently than the speech and mass gatherings of protests."
"Freedom of speech as a value is not about the government."
"It's one thing to have speech censored, then it's another thing to have compelled speech."
"It's difficult, defending the rights of unpleasant people to say unpleasant things."
"No amount of stripping people's rights will solve anything."
"Even if you don't exercise a right, you need to recognize that it still is your right."
"Speech is fundamental to our freedom. We will defend freedom of speech against digital book burners, regardless of how big they are or how powerful they are."
"Even the notion that the government can shut down your bank account for giving 50 bucks to a protest is absolutely crazy."
"It's just a pure trampling of Second Amendment rights."
"The right to vote is unique, special, and constitutionally protected."
"Our freedoms and our rights are under assault."
"Yale's policy doesn't protect our religious liberty. Yale is telling its students you can do anything you want unless you happen to have a faith and want to act upon that faith then we're gonna discriminate against you."
"It's really the basis of everything else. The protections of the First Amendment are what allow all the rest of our freedoms to be meaningful."
"It's terrifying that you can use public health to suppress religious expression."
"This document essentially turns law-abiding people into felons overnight."
"Quarantine is when you restrict the movement of sick people; tyranny is when you restrict the movement of healthy people. This is tyranny."
"Lockdowns, mandates, and passports are among the most vile, unconstitutional, immoral, unscientific, discriminatory, and outright criminal policies ever forced upon the population."
"Canada does have freedom of speech... Canada is a country with... Free Press."
"You don't have freedom of the press or freedom of speech."
"I value my fourth amendment rights and I'm not surrendering or giving up any of my rights."
"Let's deliver things to the American people, let's make sure we protect people's freedoms."
"We should have seen it earlier. If you empower the government to violate civil liberties in pursuit of a foreign terror organization, it's just a matter of time before ambitious politicians use those same mechanisms to suppress political dissent."
"People don't want to comply with what they view as an infringement."
"Do you feel like your first amendment rights are under attack? Yes, I do. I feel like they are under attack, and in the worst way." - Eloise McDaniel
"Freedom is losing out in the tension between security and freedom."
"Freedom of speech is the main right that you have. Without it, you have no others."
"Don't go by what some guy on the street says but we have a constitution in this country that defends your rights and liberties and freedoms and it's very valuable and I hope you guys appreciate that."
"Preserve and protect your liberty if politicians are going to turn this into a never-ending lockdown."
"A civil libertarian shouldn't be loved or hated by anybody but people who deeply believe in civil liberties due process."
"You should be able to do anything that you want to do in a free country."
"It's an attack on your speech and property rights too by restricting your speech as a qualification to access your gun rights."
"People are giving up their rights and their liberties so easily like dumb geese."
"The red line for the government is we as citizens have much, much more room because of the bill of rights."
"This is a president that is using law enforcement and federal forces for political purposes, and that should be chilling to every American."
"You guys are free to go. For not doing anything wrong, it's absurd."
"You have the right to criticize police officers, to mock police officers."
"The FBI's conflation of domestic speech with foreign malign influence poses a grave threat to America and our civil liberties."
"Efforts to counter foreign disinformation have noble intentions, but government censorship of domestic speech cannot and should not be accepted."
"Protecting civil liberties and civil rights has been part of our mission since the days of the civil rights movement."
"We should support freedom of religion, and this isn't freedom of religion."
"Freedom is being taken away from us one step at a time, and it is something that we need to be focused on and we need to be vigilant about if we hope to live in a future where we have that freedom back."
"Even in a pandemic, the constitution cannot be put away and forgotten."
"Rights are being eroded faster than we can keep up with them."
"What country that purports to be free would countenance a routine traffic stop as a possible death sentence?"
"I just want personally to protect this country, protect the freedoms that we have in this country."
"Those freedoms have served me and my family well."
"Our government is not our nanny. We shouldn't allow them to do certain things that we allow them to do and get away with. They're responsible to us in many ways; we're not responsible to them."
"Stand up for the rights of others, and in some ways, it's even more important than standing up for your own rights."
"The first amendment is our pressure release valve."
"I detest hate speech, but I believe freedom comes first."
"Locking everybody up violates our fundamental Liberties."
"Don't take away freedom of speech... don't try because we're not going to let you do it."
"Passing this law will just make it harder for the intelligence services to keep a watch on serious criminals and terrorists."
"We just sort of accepted at face value that cops have the right to use resources and impinge upon people's Liberty as long as they're wearing a badge."
"New Jersey, you cannot demand ID from anyone unless you're part of law enforcement."
"The imperative of policing was able to overwhelm and bury the basic constitutional rights of the people."
"Empowering armed agents of the government with nearly unchecked power to demand your ID or face legal consequences sounds pretty dystopian to me."
"You take away people's lives, livelihoods, freedoms, you lock them up, you lock them down, you mask them up, you alienate them from friends and family, from their religious institutions..."
"I voted for the guy and I'm speaking up every day about how we need to defend our freedom and our rights."
"We will defend privacy, free speech, free assembly, religious liberty, and the right to keep and bear arms."
"Rand Paul warned about mass surveillance and how American citizens are going to be spied on by our government."
"Our fourth amendment protection against unwarranted search and seizures has been eroded by legal precedent which gives police vast discretion to ignore it."
"Dissent is being criminalized, not just by dictatorships, but by allegedly liberal western democracies."
"I would vote no on lockdown, I would vote yes on liberty."
"THE RIGHT OF ALL PEOPLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS"
"The loss of freedoms for even minimal periods of time unquestionably constitute irreparable injury." - Elrod versus Burns, 427 U.S. 347 (1976).
"If you would give up even a little bit of your freedom in exchange for security, you're going to keep losing your freedom."
"I believe that what we are seeing is a concerted rollback of civil liberties in general—our right to privacy, our right to bodily autonomy, our right to marry whomever we wish to marry—all of this is at risk."
"I never thought I would see it in America where we value Free Speech where we value questioning Authority."
"Give the government an inch on one issue, and they'll take a mile on another one."
"I don't care if you're conservative, liberal, libertarian, or communist... free speech, that's what it's all about."
"Freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of association... without free speech, freedom dies."
"Compliance is the goal, but we're fighting for your freedom."
"The Patriot Act is one of the most egregious violations of American civil liberties in history."
"What is happening to Tommy is a travesty and threatens our civil liberties."
"Protecting those freedoms...what a service he's done for the country."
"Rights are like muscles, if you don't use them, you lose them."
"Somebody's going to get hurt because this ain't America anymore when the ATF has that kind of power."
"Edward Snowden? He's a hero, a patriot, risked his own freedom."
"It's about fighting for liberty and the right to take back freedom by force if necessary."
"Once you give the government a little bit, they're going to take a mile."
"That's the idea of freedom: we protect your right to protest the system."
"Liberty and justice for all. That's in the pledge. Do we still have liberty?"
"Watching members of the Ottawa Police Service seize fuel from peaceful protesters took away a long-held belief that I thought to be a lasting truth."
"Social media should not be used to incite violence and all that. But this cannot be used as a pretext to suspend freedom of expression."
"The First Amendment is under assault in the most egregious overstep of power I've ever seen."
"As much as the government hates that we keep and bear arms, that's the only thing that keeps us free at this point." - Spawndog
"You're not taking my rights. You're not coming into my home. You're not locking my doors."
"The idea that a state actor could demand that anyone prove who they are and why they are somewhere at a time where someone has never seen them is a prime example of authoritarianism."
"It is the most important right that Americans have."
"Always err on the side of constitutional rights."
"The constitution was not written to give you your rights; it was written to limit the scope of authority that government has over we the people."
"Without Free Speech, most of your rights are basically null and void."
"Everyone has the right to peaceful assembly."
"These past few few years have given me a new appreciation for the fragility of our freedoms."
"Freedom of speech means defending even incorrect or dangerous speech."
"This should outrage every single person who prides themselves on being an American in a free society."
"This is people getting sick and tired of having their freedom taken away."
"My body, my choice. Don't inject me with something I don't want."
"Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes down the state's stay-at-home order."
"America was founded not to promote racism but to guarantee sacred liberties and opportunities to its citizens."
"The greatest threat to American citizens isn't China or TikTok; it's the American government that spies on us daily."
"This is dystopian, and we have let this happen so quickly and with so little pushback."
"It's not about neutrality, it's about standing up for individual liberties."
"The solution can only come from rejecting the use of coercion."
"You will be nothing but a drone, you will be a product and property of these vaccine consortiums and we cannot permit that to happen."
"Protect your rights, don't let them strip them away."
"It's my body, my choice. Don't tell me I have to wear a mask."
"The ideal form of government is one that is only big enough to protect the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of its citizens but not so big that the government begins to violate the very principles it is supposed to protect."
"Governments regularly deal with difficult situations and do so using powers granted to them by democratically elected representatives emergency legislation should not be normalized it threatens our democracy and our civil liberties."
"Ed Snowden is one of the greatest whistleblowers in our history."
"I believe there should be as little government as necessary to maintain infrastructure, safety, and preserve people's ability to be free."
"If you've got nothing to hide, then there's nothing for them to find."