16
Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S.), Constitutional Law, §202, p.987
"Personal liberty, or the Right to enjoyment of life and liberty,
is one of the fundamental or natural Rights, which has been protected
by its inclusion as a guarantee in the various constitutions, which
is not derived from, or dependent on, the U.S. Constitution, which
may not be submitted to a vote and may not depend on the outcome
of an election. It is one of the most sacred and valuable Rights,
as sacred as the Right to private property ... and is regarded as
inalienable."
LIBERTY - (Lat.
liber, free; libertas, freedom, liberty). Freedom from
restraint. The faculty of willing, and the power of doing what has been
willed, without influence from without. -
"Liberty, it
has been well said, depends, not so much upon the absence of actual
oppression, as on the existence of Constitutional checks upon the power
to oppress. These checks should not be destroyed or impaired by
judicial decisions."
[Maxwell v. Dow,
176 U.S. 581, 617 (1900]
Congress and the Constitution,
The Nation, p. 214, 1895:
"Unrestricted power
of taxation is the greatest power over accumulated wealth, manufacturers,
industry, and personal freedom which any government can have; for liberty,
as Hampden found out, cannot be worth much to a man who may be taxed
in any way some other man pleases."
[Congress
and the Constitution, The Nation, p. 214, March 21, 1895]
Black's Law Dictionary, Revised
Fourth Edition, 1968, pp. 1064-1066
liberty. Freedom;
exemption from extraneous control.
Freedom from all restraints
except such as are justly imposed by law [cite omitted.] Freedom
from restraint under conditions essential to the equal enjoyment of
the same right by others; freedom regulated by law. [cite omitted.]
The absence of arbitrary restraint, not immunity from reasonable regulations
and prohibitions imposed in the interests of the community. [Cites omitted.]
The power of the will
to follow the dictates of the unrestricted choice, and to direct the
external acts of the individual without restraint, coercion, or control
from other persons. [Cite omitted.]
The word "liberty"
includes and comprehends all personal rights and their enjoyment.
[Cite omitted.] It embraces freedom from duress, [cite omitted];
freedom from government interference in exercise of intellect, in formation
of opinions, in the expression of them, and in action or inaction dictated
by the judgment, Zavilla v. Masse, 112 Colo. 183, 147 P.2d 823, 827;
freedom from servitude, imprisonment or restraint, [cites omitted];
freedom in enjoyment and use of all of one's powers, faculties and property,
[cites omitted]; freedom of assembly, [cite omitted]; freedom of citizen
from banishment, [cite omitted]; freedom of conscience, [cite omitted];
freedom of contract, [cites omitted]; freedom of locomotion or movement,
Commonwealth v. Doe, Organization v. Hague, D.C.N.J., 25 F.Supp. 127,
131, 141; freedom of occupation, [cite omitted]; freedom of press, [cites
omitted]; freedom of religion, [cites omitted]; freedom of speech, [cites
omitted]. It also embraces right of self-defense against unlawful
violence, Rohrer v. Mild COntrol Board, 121 Pa.Super. 281, 184 A. 133,
136; right to acquire and enjoy property, Rohrer v. Milk Control Board,
121 Pa.Super. 281, 184 A.133, 136; right to acquire useful knowledge,
[cite omitted]; right to carry on business, [cite omitted]; right to
earn livelihood in any lawful calling. [cite omitted]; right to
emigrate, and if a citizen, to return, [cite omitted]; right to engage
in lawful business, to determine the price of one's labor, and to fix
the hours when one's place of business shall be kept open, [cite omitted];
the right to enjoy to the fullest extent the privileges and immunities
given or assured by law to people living within the country, [cite omitted];
right to forswear allegiance and expatriate oneself, [cite omitted];
right to freely buy and sell as others may, [cite omitted]; right to
labor, [cite omitted]; right to marry and have a family, [cites omitted];
right to pursue chosen calling, [cites omitted]; right to use property
according owner's will, State Bank & Trust Co. v. Village of Williamette,
358 Ill. 311, 193 N.E. 131, 133, 96 A.L.R. 1327.
Liberty on its positive
side, denotes the fullness of individual existence; on its negative
side it denotes the necessary restraint on all, which is needed to promote
the greatest possible amount of liberty for each. Amos, Science
of Law, p. 90.
The "personal liberty"
guaranteed by the Const. U.S. Amend. 13 consists in the power
of locomotion without imprisonment or restraint unless by due course
of law, except those restraints imposed to prevent commission of threatened
crime or in punishment of crime committed, those in punishment of contempts
of courts or legislative bodies or to render their jurisdiction effectual,
and those necessary to enforce the duty citizens owe in defense of the
state to protect community against acts of those who by reason of mental
infirmity are incapable of self-control. [cite omitted]
"Civil liberty"
"the liberty of a member
of society, being a man's natural liberty, so far restrained by human
laws (and no further) as is necessary and expedient for the general
advantage of the public. [cite omitted]
The power of doing
whatever the laws permit. [cites omitted.] The greatest
amount of absolute liberty which can, in the nature of things, be equally
possessed by every citizen in a state. Guaranteed protection against
interference with the interests and rights held dear and important by
large classes of civilized men, or by all the members of a state, together
with an effectual share in the making and administration of the laws,
as the best apparatus to secure that protection. [cite omitted]
"Natural Liberty"
The power of acting
as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, unless by the law
of nature. [cite omitted.}
The right which nature
gives to all mankind of disposing of their persons and property after
the manner they judge most consistent with their happiness, on condition
of their acting with an equal exercise of the same rights by other men.
[cites omitted.] It is called by Lieber social liberty,
and is defined as the protection or unrestrained action in as high a
degree as the same claim of protectin of each individual admits of.
"Personal Liberty"
The right or power
of locomotion; of changing situation, or moving one's person to whatever
place one's own inclination may direct, without imprisonment or restraint,
unless by due course of law. [cites omitted.]
"Political liberty"
Liberty of the citizen
to participate in the operations of government, and particularly in
the making and administration of the laws."
[Black's Law Dictionary,
Revised Fourth Edition, 1968, pp. 1064-1066]
"Included in the rights
of personal liberty and the right of private property--partaking of
the nature of each--is the right to make contracts for the acquisition
of property. Chief among such contracts is that of personal employment,
by which labor and other services are exchanged for money or other forms
of property."
"...The right of a
person to sell his labor upon such terms as he deems proper is, in its
essence, the same as the right of the purchaser of labor to prescribe
the conditions under which he will accept such labor from the person
offering to sell it."
[Coppage
v. State of Kansas, 236 U.S. 1 (1915)]
While this court has
not attempted to define with exactness the
liberty thus
guaranteed, the term has received much consideration and some of the
included things have been definitely stated.
Without doubt, it denotes
not merely freedom from bodily restraint but also the right of the individual
to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to
acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children,
to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and
generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized at common law as
essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.
Slaughter-House Cases, 16 Wall. 36; Butchers' Union Co. v. Crescent
City Co .,
111 U.S. 746 , 4 Sup. Ct. 652; Yick Wo v. Hopkins,
118 U.S. 356 , 6 Sup. Ct. 1064; Minnesota v. Bar er,
136 U.S. 313 , 10 Sup. Ct. 862; Allgeyer v. Louisiana,
165 U.S. 578 , 17 Sup. Ct. 427; Lochner v. New York,
198 U.S. 45 , 25 Sup. Ct. 539, 3 Ann. Cas. 1133; Twining v. New
Jersey
211 U.S. 78 , 29 Sup. Ct. 14; Chicago, B. & Q. R. R. v. McGuire,
219 U.S. 549 , 31 Sup. Ct. 259; Truax v. Raich,
239 U.S. 33 , 36 Sup. Ct. 7, L. R. A. 1916D, 545, Ann. Cas. 1917B,
283; Adams v. Tanner,
224 U.S. 590 , 37 Sup. Ct. 662, L. R. A. 1917F, 1163, Ann. Cas.
1917D, 973; New York Life Ins. Co. v. Dodge,
246 U.S. 357 , 38 Sup. Ct. 337, Ann. Cas. 1918E, 593; Truax v. Corrigan,
257 U.S. 312 , 42 Sup. Ct. 124; Adkins v. Children's Hospital (April
9, 1923),
261 U.S. 525 , 43 Sup. Ct. 394, 67 L. Ed. --; Wyeth v. Cambridge
Board of Health, 200 Mass. 474, 86 N. E. 925, 128 Am. St. Rep. 439,
23 L. R. A. (N. S.) 147. The established doctrine is that this liberty
may not be interfered [262 U.S. 390, 400] with, under the
guise of protecting the public interest, by legislative action which
is arbitrary or without reasonable relation to some purpose within the
competency of the state to effect. Determination by the Legislature
of what constitutes proper exercise of police power is not final or
conclusive but is subject to supervision by the courts. Lawton v. Steele,
152 U.S. 133, 137 , 14 S. Sup. Ct. 499.
[Meyer
v. State of Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923)]
Webster's New Twentieth
Century Dictionary 2nd Ed. (1993)
liberty, n. {OFr.liberte;
L. libertas (-atis), freedom, from liber, free.}
1. freedom or release from slavery, imprisonment, captivity, or any
other form of arbitrary control. -
[Webster's New Twentieth
Century Dictionary 2nd Ed. (1993)]
Black's Commentaries
(1 Bla.Com. 125)
Natural liberty
is the right which nature gives to all mankind of disposing of their
persons and property after the manner they judge most consistent with
their happiness, on condition of their acting within the limits of the
law of nature and so as not to interfere with an equal exercise of the
same rights by other men.
[Black's Commentaries
(1 Bla.Com. 125)]
Samuel Adams
"The natural liberty
of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be
under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the
law of nature for his rule."
[Samuel Adams]
John Philpot Curran, 1790
"The condition upon
which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition
if he breaks, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime."
[John Philpot Curran,
1790]
Thomas Jefferson
"Rightful liberty
is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around
us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of
the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when
it violates the rights of the individual." -
1 Blackstone's Commentaries
134; Hare, Constitution__. 777;
Bouvier's Law Dictionary,
1914 ed., Black's Law Dictionary, 5th ed.
Personal liberty
consists in the power of locomotion, of changing situation, of removing
one's person to whatever place one's inclination may direct, without
imprisonment or restraint unless by due course of law.
Civil Liberty
is defined by Sir William Blackstone to be "that of a member of
society, and is no other than natural liberty so far restrained
by human laws (and no further) as is necessary and expedient for the
general advantage of the public."
Preamble to the U.S. Constitution
"We
the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union,
establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common
defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty
to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution
for the United States of America."
The Declaration of Independence
(1776)
"We hold these truths
to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure
these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to
alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form,
as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
[Declaration of Independence
(1776)]
"Experience should
teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's
purposes are benificent ....The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in
insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
[...]
"The makers of our
Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit
of happiness. They recognized the significance of man's spiritual nature,
of his feelings and of his intellect. They knew that only a part of
the pain, pleasure and satisfactions of life are to be found in material
things. They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts,
their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against the
Government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights
and the right most valued by civilized men."
[Olmstead v. United
States,
277 U.S. 438, 478 (1928) (Brandeis, J., dissenting)]
"It would not be possible
to add to the emphasis with which the framers of our Constitution and
this court (in Boyd v. United States,
116 U.S. 616 , 6 Sup. Ct. 524, in Weeks v. United States,
232 U.S. 383 , 34 Sup. Ct. 341, L. R. A. 1915B, 834, Ann Cas. 1915C,
1177, and in Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States,
251 U.S. 385 , 40 Sup. Ct. 182) have declared the importance to
political liberty and to the welfare of our country of the due observance
of the rights guaranteed under the Constitution [255 U.S. 298, 304]
by these two amendments. The effect of the decisions cited is: That
such rights are declared to be indispensable to the 'full enjoyment
of personal security, personal liberty and private property'; that they
are to be regarded as of the very essence of constitutional liberty;
and that the guaranty of them is as important and as imperative as are
the guaranties of the other fundamental rights of the individual citizen-the
right to trial by jury, to the writ of habeas corpus, and to due process
of law. It has been repeatedly decided that these amendments should
receive a liberal construction, so as to prevent stealthy encroachment
upon or 'gradual depreciation' of the rights secured by them, by imperceptible
practice of courts or by well-intentioned, but mistakenly overzealous,
executive officers"
[Gouled v. U.S., 255
U.S. 298 (1921)]
"Those who framed our
Constitution and the Bill of Rights were ever aware of subtle encroachments
on individual liberty. They knew that 'illegitimate and unconstitutional
practices get their first footing.... by silent approaches and slight
deviations from legal modes of procedure.
[. . .]
"It may be that it
is the obnoxious thing in its mildest and least repulsive form; but
illegitimate and unconstitutional practices get their first footing
in that way, namely, by silent approaches and slight deviations from
legal modes of procedure. This can only be obviated by adhering to the
rule that constitutional provisions for the security of person and property
should be liberally construed. A close and literal construction deprives
them of half their efficacy, and leads to gradual depreciation of the
right, as if it consisted more in sound than in substance. It is the
duty of courts to be watchful for the constitutional rights of the citizen,
and against any stealthy encroachments thereon."
[Boyd
v. United States, 116 US 616, 635, 29 L.Ed. 746, (1886)]
"The history of liberty
has largely been the history of the observence of procedural safeguards."
-
[Justice
Felix Frankfurter in McNabb v. U.S., 318 US 332, 347 (1943):]
"Procedural fairness
and regularity are of the indispensible essence of liberty." -
[Justice
Robert Jackson in Shaughnesy v. U.S., 345 U.S. 206, 224]
Roscoe Pound - "The Development
of Constitutional Guarantees of Liberty", (Pg. 1)
"Whatever 'liberty'
may mean today, the liberty guaranteed by our bill of rights is a reservation
to the individual of certain fundamental reasonable expectations involved
in life in civilized society and a freedom from arbitrary and unreasonable
exercise of the power and authority of those who are designated or chosen
in a politically organized society to adjust relations and order conduct,
and so are able to apply the force of that society to individuals. Liberty
under law implies a systematic and orderly application of that force
so that it is uniform, equal, and predictable, and proceeds from reason
and upon understood grounds rather from caprice or impulse or without
full and fair hearing of all affected and understanding of the facts
on which official action is taken."
Benjamin Franklin
"They
that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety."
"Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about
it; but if you can be made free, rather use it. "
[1
Cor. 7:21, Bible, NKJV]
"You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men."
[1
Cor. 7:23, Bible, NKJV]
Patrick Henry
"Guard with jealous
attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.
Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever
you give up that force, you are ruined.....The great object is that
every man be armed.....Everyone who is able may have a gun."
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