I realized that Eastern thought had somewhat more compassion for all living things. Man was a form of life that in another reincarnation might possib… - William O. Douglas

"The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom."

[Public Utilities Commission v. Pollak, 343 U.S. 451, 467 (1952) (dissenting)]

The critical question of "standing" would be simplified and also put neatly in focus if we fashioned a federal rule that allowed environmental issues to be litigated before federal agencies or federal courts in the name of the inanimate object about to be despoiled, defaced, or invaded by roads and bulldozers and where injury is the subject of public outrage. Contemporary public concern for protecting nature's ecological equilibrium should lead to the conferral of standing upon environmental objects to sue for their own preservation. This suit would therefore be more properly labeled as Mineral King v. Morton.

No matter what the legislature may say, a man has the right to make his speech, print his handbill, compose his newspaper, and deliver his sermon without asking anyone's permission. The contrary suggestion is abhorrent to our traditions.