But they think they know it. And their idea is all the same. You can trace it to the same thing, doesn’t make any difference what it is, what their experience is, or why they’re mad with the Court. It’s all because each one of them believes that the Constitution prohibits that which they think should be prohibited, and it permits that which they think should be permitted.

Hugo Black (1886-1971) American politician and jurist, US Supreme Court Justice (1937-71)

Interview with Eric Serverid and Martin Agronsky, CBS News (1968-12-09)

On the public's misunderstanding of the Constitution. Reprinted in "Newsmakers, Objection Overruled," Newsweek (1968-12-09), and in "Justice Black and the Bill of Rights," Southwestern University Law Review (1977).

Black used the same idea on multiple occasions, e.g., at a news conference in Washington, D.C. (1971-02-25):

The layman's Constitutional view is that what he likes is constitutional and that which he doesn't like is unconstitutional. That about measures up the Constitutional acumen of the average person.