Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 1048 |
| AUTHOR: | Louis Dembitz Brandeis (1856–1941) |
| QUOTATION: | The defendants’ objections to the evidence obtained by wire-tapping must, in my opinion, be sustained. It is, of course, immaterial where the physical connection with the telephone wires leading into the defendants’ premises was made. And it is also immaterial that the intrusion was in aid of law enforcement. Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Justice The last sentence is one of many quotations inscribed on Cox Corridor II, a first floor House corridor, U.S. Capitol. |
| SUBJECTS: | Liberty |