NaturalPedia > First Amendment

Quotes about First Amendment from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

Share

Tweet

Email to a friend   |  Click here for FREE email alerts

page 1 of 3 | Next ->

"The system recommended here fulfills, rather than violates, the first amendment and replaces a legacy of FDA speech suppression that has sacrificed life and health with one that will promote health freedom. Enacting Legislation to Mandate Due Process in Medicare Part B Reimbursement Cases Legislation needs to be introduced that removes from Medicare the authority to judge appeals from its carrier's reimbursement decisions and permits those appeals to be placed directly in the federal courts." - Jonathan W. Emord, The Rise of Tyranny (Get the book.) "They did so based on arguments that the first amendment denied the federal government the power to abridge speech. The Alien and Sedition Acts did not survive the struggle, expiring in 1802 with the rise of the party of Jefferson, the Republicans. In all but one of its parts (the Alien Enemies Act still in force today), the Alien and Sedition Acts disappeared from the code books, but did Jefferson and Madison's views carry the day? One hundred and fourteen years later, in Lee v." - Jonathan W. Emord, The Rise of Tyranny (Get the book.) "Although some might suspect that with the expiry of the Alien and Sedition Acts and reaffirmation of the nation's commitment to the first amendment, federal government prior restraints over speech would be banished (a relic of the Courts of Star Chamber in England and of the wicked regime of Henry VIII). They would need to think again, however. Since the 1930's, the Food and Drug Administration has maintained an absolute prior restraint on the communication of truthful nutrient-disease relationship information." - Jonathan W. Emord, The Rise of Tyranny (Get the book.) "Judge Kessler then assessed FDA's action against the above standard and found the standard not satisfied, determining instead that FDA had again disobeyed the Court of Appeals by favoring suppression over disclosure, contrary to the first amendment mandate: First, while the Court of Appeals stated that a complete ban would be reasonable where there was no evidence to support a claim . . . that is not the case here. It is undisputed that the FDA identified some evidence (approximately one-third of the total evidence examined) in support of the Antioxidant Vitamin Claim." - Jonathan W. Emord, The Rise of Tyranny (Get the book.)

"He was, after all, attacking their drug sponsors. The first amendment to the US Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press." Dr. Benjamin Rush, MD, who was a signatory to the Declaration of Independence and physician to George Washington, urged Congress to add the words, "or abridging the right of citizens to secure medical treatment from doctors of their own choice." - Susan E. Schenck, The Live Food Factor: The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet (Get the book.)

"DTC drug ads have become such a prominent part of our cultural landscape that they seem completely normal, appropriately protected by the first amendment. But outside the United States, DTC advertising is anything but normal, allowed in only one other industrialized country in the world, New Zealand, with a population of only 4 million people." - John Abramson, Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine (P.S.) (Get the book.) "Daniel Troy had extensive experience in first amendment issues, with a particularly strong record in defending the right of commercial speech. He successfully represented the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation before the Supreme Court in the company's bid to block the FDA from assuming regulatory authority over tobacco products. He was also part of a legal team that sued the FDA to allow drug companies to promote "off-label" (non-FDA-approved) use of prescription drugs, partially bypassing the FDA's review process. In short, one of the FDA's chief adversaries became its chief counsel." - John Abramson, Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine (P.S.) (Get the book.) "Woodcock said the FDA could not "constrain communication" in a scientific journal, and that this was "a first amendment right of commercial speech issue." Then Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, asked Dr. Woodcock, "Do you ever write a letter to the editor if you feel that an article has misrepresented the results of a study that the FDA has reviewed?" Dr. Woodcock said that this had been done in the past, but the FDA did not do so in this case, adding, "I don't know why." - John Abramson, Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine (P.S.) (Get the book.)

"EXCESSIVE BURPING SPEAKING OF SIGNS The first amendment does not cover burping. —Bart Simpson,TV cartoon character Burping in public comes in a close second for embarrassing body sounds. While farting takes first prize, burping—medically known as eructation— is really just another form of flatulence. For most of us, burping, aka belching, is a benign sign of stomach gas—we're getting rid of excess swallowed air trapped in our digestive systems. Indeed, it's normal to burp 3 or 4 times after a meal." - Joan Liebmann-Smith, Ph. D., and Jacqueline Nardi Egan, Body Signs: From Warning Signs to False Alarms...How to Be Your Own Diagnostic Detective (Get the book.)

"The FDA needs to cease their attacks on the first amendment. We don't need the FDA protecting the turf of drug companies and physicians who have failed to find adequate cures for cancer, despite being given countless billions of dollars. Americans are sick and tired of potential health options being trampled in the name of consumer protection. The sickness industry is a horrid racket, which needs to be turned upside down and shaken out. Fear of disease needs to be replaced by consumer education and hopefulness." - Byron J. Richards, Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America (Get the book.)

"Chapter 3 READ THIS OR THEY'LL KILL ME The first amendment is often inconvenient. But that is beside the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government from its obligation to tolerate speech. —Justice Anthony Kennedy The United States Government and governments around the world have colluded together with international drug and pharmaceutical companies to create a "medical cartel," a virtual monopoly on what is the "truth" regarding health, and the treatment of illness and disease." - Kevin Trudeau, More Natural Cures Revealed: Previously Censored Brand Name Products That Cure Disease (Get the book.) "My insiders tell me that the FTC is on a mission to find any technicality, any loophole, and do all it can to drive me into the ground and strip me of my first amendment right of free speech. Their harassing tactics over the last few months should be viewed as civil rights violations, personal attacks, and retaliation against my very public negative comments against these government renegade agencies. When I saw this happen, I re-evaluated my business enterprise around the world, my personal mission statement, and my life's priorities. This is the conclusion that I have come to." - Kevin Trudeau, More Natural Cures Revealed: Previously Censored Brand Name Products That Cure Disease (Get the book.) "I want to show you that the FTC is inconsistent with their statements, contradictory with their opinions, and make demands that have not been agreed to in the order, are overreaching, and are simply suppressions of first amendment free speech. The FTC states in its letter that if I were to "promote mattress brands or air freshener brands that I believe are good that would be okay because these would not relate to the content of my book." So the first thing the FTC said is I couldn't in any way, shape or form even mention any product by brand name." - Kevin Trudeau, More Natural Cures Revealed: Previously Censored Brand Name Products That Cure Disease (Get the book.)

"However, third parties like The Doctors' Prescription for Healthy Living, that is, publishing companies and other sources of information that do not profit from the sale of the product, are protected under the first amendment and may make stronger claims. But these claims and reports should still be balanced and objective. As a publisher entrusted with the public good, I expect our reporting to go beyond superficial hype (and there's a lot of that kind of marketing fertilizer spread throughout the dietary supplement industry by irresponsible manufacturers and publishers)." - David Steinman, Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown (Get the book.)

"Despite losing numerous court battles regarding DSHEA, the FDA keeps trying to take away the first amendment right of consumers to understand natural health options. The FDA works behind the scenes to set up "safety" guidelines designed to remove DSHEA from the scene. Codex could easily overturn DSHEA; so could any regional trade agreement discussed in Chapter 22. DSHEA is the only legislation protecting health options for Americans. It needs to be supported and strengthened, at the same time that regional and international trade agreements need to be negated or overturned." - Byron J. Richards, Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America (Get the book.)

"Should such purely commercial speech lack all first amendment protection? Blackmun and the majority said it did not. "As to the particular consumer's interest in the free flow of commercial information, that interest may be keener, if not keener by far, than the interest in the day's most urgent political debate," Blackmun wrote. "Those whom the suppression of prescription drug price information hits the hardest are the poor, the sick, and particularly the aged." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"And they trample our first amendment rights in the process. They pretend to protect the public, when in reality the powers that truly control the FDA simply act to stamp out competition to pharmaceutical interests, the American Medical Association, and the Rockefeller cartel. J 18 The illusion of bone drugs Osteoporosis is a serious health problem. Having strong bones and preventing the loss of bone are important health issues. Drug companies, which seek to use pharmaceuticals for prevention, see the aging baby-boomer population as a target market." - Byron J. Richards, Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America (Get the book.)

"With the support of many other states, the state was able to successfully battle a well-funded lawsuit by the National Electrical Manufacturers' Association that sought to void the label requirements based on the notion that such wording would violate the member companies' Constitutional rights by interfering with interstate commerce and infringe their first amendment rights by compelling speech. In other heartening developments, California Congresswoman Diane Watson has proposed a law that would phase out mercury amalgam fillings within five years." - Russell L. Blaylock, M.D., Health and Nutrition Secrets (Get the book.)

"In other words, it was not just the speaker who was protected by the first amendment, it was also the potential hearer of information. Morrison boiled all of this down to one compelling case. "The hearer has rights! And rights to hear an advertisement that was factual! That was my case. It all boiled down to access to safe, lawful medical services, and in my case it was access to information about safe prescription drugs." The Court agreed, and in a seven-to-one decision, again found in favor of the Citizens Consumer Council." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.) "Using an older doctrine which held that commercial speech was not protected by the first amendment, the board argued that the state was well within its constitutional powers to restrict what pharmacists could say. But Morrison was a crafty court watcher, and he intuited that the Court would be disinclined to buy an argument based on traditional free speech law. Increasingly, first in a 1972 case known as Kleindienst v. Mandel, then in a 1985 case known as Bigelow, the Court majority had articulated a new doctrine called "the hearer's right to know." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"In the US, every attempt to regulate what children see and hear comes up against the first amendment. In the rest of the world, anti-censorship campaigners cite human rights legislation. The issue of children's right to a healthy environment is thus lost in controversy about the rights of adults to read, view and listen to whatever they like. Take violence, for example." - Sue Palmer, Toxic Childhood: How the Modern World is Damaging Our Children and What We Can Do About it (Get the book.) "However, as well as the difficulties of policing, there's the same old problem of extreme interpretations of human rights legislation and, in the USA, the first amendment. Defenders of freedom of speech on the Internet are even more voluble than critics of media censorship, so there's a long way to go in finding a sensible balanced approach. There's also enormous reluctance among the vast majority of decent people to become involved in this debate." - Sue Palmer, Toxic Childhood: How the Modern World is Damaging Our Children and What We Can Do About it (Get the book.)

"I make this disclosure because of the highly litigious times in which we live where the first amendment is no longer protection enough for those who desire to speak their mind and tell the truth. I invite you to visit my Web site at www.FitAdvocate.com where "Fit Advocate Approved" health and fitness information, resources, products and services are presented to make it easier for you to make informed decisions. My experience does not make me the final authority on health and fitness. I do not proclaim to be a fitness guru, nor am I trying to sell you a magic formula for success." - Craig Pepin-Donat, The Big Fat Health and Fitness Lie (Get the book.)

"Arguing a strict constructionist theory in front of an increasingly conservative, strict constructionist court, Troy focused on the intentions of the Founders when it came to the first amendment and advertising. Examining a range of eighteenth-century newspapers and their publishers, including Benjamin Franklin, Troy told the court that "Colonial Americans plainly viewed the freedom of speech as protecting far more than just political speech." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"Fox was arguing that the first amendment can be interpreted so broadly that broadcasters are allowed to do practically anything they want in broadcasting to the public over the publicly-owned airwaves. Actually theirs was an argument designed to undermine the whistle-blower status of Akre and Wilson since whistleblowers have to be reporting a misdeed—something against a law, rule, or regulation. But the implications were astonishing. One might consider this to be a legal maneuvering, an aberration designed to sway a panel of appellate judges. But Fox was not alone in that argument." - Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., What's In Your Milk?: An Exposé of Industry and Government Cover-Up on the Dangers of the Genetically Engineered (rBGH) Milk You're Drinking (Get the book.)

"They argued that, under the first amendment, broadcasters have the right to lie or deliberately distort news on public airwaves." The Florida Appeals Court agreed. The flip that is occurring here is that people aren't buying the misinformation. The Pew Research Center reports that less than 32 percent of viewers believe the news is accurate; 53 percent say they don't trust the news. Newspapers and national news magazines fare much worse, ranking below 25 percent. Hey, we're not as dumb as they think!" - David H. Rippe, Jared Rosen, The Flip: Turn Your World Around (Get the book.)

"Any sensible person might think foods is associated with protection that the Founding Fathers devised the against heart disease and cancer, but first amendment to protect political dis-quite another to demonstrate that sent rather than the right of food mar- eating a specific breakfast cereal will keters to use overblown health claims on protect you against those diseases. cereal boxes. But that is how the courts in- terpret this constitutional amendment, and the FDA chose not to press alternative legal arguments. The results began to appear on supermarket shelves in 1999." - Marion Nestle, What to Eat (Get the book.) "After 1997, practically any time the FDA said no to a petition for a health claim, the company took the FDA to court, and the courts usu- ally ruled in favor of the companies —on It is one thing to say, as federal first amendment grounds of freedom of agencies do, that eating whole-grain speech." - Marion Nestle, What to Eat (Get the book.) "Despite the reach of such campaigns, not all meat producers appreciate the checkoff programs and some have sued the courts for the right to opt out of them on first amendment (free speech) grounds. Starting in 2002, for example, dissident beef producers got their lawsuit as far as the U.S. Court of Appeals, which declared the beef checkoff unconstitutional because it forced producers to pay for advertising messages even if they did not want to. In 2005, however, the Supreme Court overturned that decision." - Marion Nestle, What to Eat (Get the book.) "Exercise your first amendment rights and speak out. And enjoy your dinner. You eat. Willingly or not you participate in the environment of food choice. The choices you make about food are as much about the kind of world you want to live in as they are about what to have for dinner." - Marion Nestle, What to Eat (Get the book.)

page 1 of 3 | Next ->

FAIR USE NOTICE: The research quoted here is provided under the protection of Fair Use provisions and published by the 501(c)3 non-profit Consumer Wellness Center for the purposes of public comment and education. Authors / publishers may submit books for consideration of inclusion here.

TERMS OF USE: Read full terms of use. Citations of text from NaturalPedia must include: 1) Full credit to the original author and book title. 2) Secondary credit to the Natural News Naturalpedia as a research resource and a link to www.NaturalPedia.com

This unique compilation of research is copyright (c) 2008, 2009 by the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center.

ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of NaturalPedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.