Charles S. Haight, a federal judge in Manhattan, ruled that the dangers of terrorism were "perils sufficient to outweigh any First Amendment cost."
Oh, yeah? Not what wiser men than Judge Haight have thought!
"They that can give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." -- William Pitt
"Human beings will generally exercise power when they can get it, and they will exercise it most undoubtedly in popular governments under pretense of public safety." -- Daniel Webster
"The privacy and dignity of our citizens
being whittled away by sometimes imperceptible steps. Taken individually, each step may be of little consequence. But when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a society quite unlike any we have seen -- a society in which government may intrude into the secret regions of a life." -- Justice William O. Douglas
"Because they invariably have the visage of overriding importance, there is always a temptation to invoke security "necessities" to justify an encroachment upon civil liberties." -- Justice William Brennan