where does the following statement come from or to whom/what is it
attributed (and I paraphrase): "it is the responsibility of free
people to question authority."

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Request for Question Clarification by tar_heel_v-ga on 18 Nov 2002 06:13 PST

I have found a quote similar to what you are looking for:

"One may well ask: How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying
others? The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws:
just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws.
One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws.
Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. "

Could this be the quote you are looking for?

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Clarification of Question by sailguy-ga on 18 Nov 2002 11:13 PST

No, I don't think so. I've also heard it stated as (again, a
paraphrase), " a free people not only have the right to question
authority,  they have the responsibility to do so."  I hope that
clarifies it a bit. I appreciate your help.

Greetings-

"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question
authority," is attributed to Benjamin Franklin on at least one
quotation web site(http://www.remc11.k12.mi.us/~jinman/pol.htm), but I
have been unable to find a citation to confirm that.

Timothy Leary said,"Think for yourself and question authority,"
at many rallies in the Sixties.

"Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening,
terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we're going
in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities: the political,
the religious, the educational authorities, who have attempted to
comfort us by giving us order, rule, regulations. Informing, forming
in our minds an inner view of reality. To think for yourself you must
question authority and learn how to immerse yourself in a state of
vulnerable open-mindedness-- chaotic, confused vulnerability to which
you owe yourself. Think for yourself. Question authority."
-Timothy Leary
 The Cyber-punk: The Individual as Reality Pilot, (ar) Mississippi
Review #47/48 ’88

Search strategy: "question authority"; "question authority" Benjamin
Franklin; "Question authority" Leary

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Request for Answer Clarification by sailguy-ga on 18 Nov 2002 12:33 PST

Before I rate your answer, I'd like to say that I recognize that the
quotation may indeed be bastardazation of some other quote. But I'd
like to know whether your search strategy was simply typing keywords
into Google's search engine (which I did before I posted my question,
which yielded the same answers in seconds).

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Clarification of Answer by nellie_bly-ga on 18 Nov 2002 12:46 PST

Hi-
Since we usually only mention "successful" search strategies, I did
not include
a search of Bartlett's, Columbia and Simpson's quotations, the
Stumpers archives (a list used by reference librarians for difficult
questions) where the only attribution offered was to Leary, as well as
several internet quotation collections from my personal bookmarks.

It's possible this really is a Franklin quote despite only one interet
attribution, but it would require library  or telephone research to
verify that, I believe.

Should you wish to pursue that route, you might consider posting a new
question with a fee that would cover the expenses of such an endeavor.
However, there's a fairly strong likelihood that such a search would
still not yield a satisfactory answer.

Nellie Bly

Good work. Thank you very much.