5 Russ Feingold Quotes on Civil liberties

Russ Feingold quotes on civil liberties

2. Of course, there is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be easier to catch terrorists. If we lived in a country that allowed the police to search your home at any time for any reason; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to open your mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversations, or intercept your email communications; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to hold people in jail indefinitely based on what they write or think, or based on mere suspicion that they are up to no good, then the government would no doubt discover and arrest more terrorists. But that probably would not be a country in which we would want to live. And that would not be a country for which we could, in good conscience, ask our young people to fight and die. In short, that would not be America.

13. I don't care, whatever political considerations I have are absolutely irrelevant to the decisions I make having to do with people's civil liberties and something as weighty as Americans risking their lives overseas. The day that I start think politically about those things is the day I should leave politics. --(In response to the claim that his stands on civil liberties may hurt his chances with moderate Democrats and conservatives.

38. Senator Feingold was right about the dangers when the Senate first passed the Patriot Act, and he has remained true to his cause. I stand with him today as I should have the first time.

41. I voted against it (the USA Patriot Act) because certain provisions of the Act represent a very dangerous infringement on our civil liberties.

44. If the history of wartime politics teaches us anything, it is that measures that seem just, or at least permissible, in a time of conflict, can have damaging and lasting repercussions.