List of William J. Brennan Quotes

Use Of A Mentally Ill Person's Involuntary Confession Is Antithetical To The Notion Of Fundamental Fairness Embodied In The Due Process Clause.

With Respect To The Death Penalty, I Believe That A Majority Of The Supreme Court Will One Day Accept That When The State Punishes With Death, It Denies The Humanity And Dignity Of The Victim And Transgresses The Prohibition Against Cruel And Unusual Punishment. That Day Will Be A Great Day For Our Country, For It Will Be A Great Day For Our Constitution.

The Public Schools Are Supported Entirely, In Most Communities, By Public Funds-funds Exacted Not Only From Parents, Nor Alone From Those Who Hold Particular Religious Views, Nor Indeed From Those Who Subscribe To Any Creed At All.

Our Statute Books Gradually Became Laden With Gross, Stereotyped Distinctions Between The Sexes And, Indeed, Throughout Much Of The 19th Century The Position Of Women In Our Society Was, In Many Respects, Comparable To That Of Blacks Under The Pre-civil War Slave Codes.

The Modern Public School Derived From A Philosophy Of Freedom Reflected In The First Amendment ... The Non-sectarian Or Secular Public School Was The Means Of Reconciling Freedom In General With Religious Freedom.

Capital Punishment...treats Members Of The Human Race...as Objects To Be Toyed With And Discarded.

The Bill Of Rights Never Gets Off The Page And Into The Lives Of Most Americans.

More Fundamentally, However, The Answer To Petitioners' Objection Is That There Can Be No Impairment Of Executive Power, Whether On The State Or Federal Level, Where Actions Pursuant To That Power Are Impermissible Under The Constitution. Where There Is No Power, There Can Be No Impairment Of Power.

Whether To The Average Person, Applying Contemporary Community Standards, The Dominant Theme Of The Material Taken As A Whole Appeals To Prurient Interest.

Consequences Flow From A Justice's Interpretation In A Direct And Immediate Way. A Judicial Decision Respecting The Incompatibility Of Jim Crow With A Constitutional Guarantee Of Equality Is Not Simply A Contemplative Exercise In Defining The Shape Of A Just Society. It Is An Order

The Principle Inherent In The Clause That Prohibits Pointless Infliction Of Excessive Punishment When Less Severe Punishment Can Adequately Achieve The Same Purposes Invalidates The Punishment.

We Hold That The Constitution Does Not Forbid The States Minor Intrusions Into An Individual's Body Under Stringently Limited Conditions.

At Bottom, The Battle Has Been Waged On Moral Grounds. The Country Has Debated Whether A Society For Which The Dignity Of The Individual Is The Supreme Value Can, Without A Fundamental Inconsistency, Follow The Practice Of Deliberately Putting One Of Its Members To Death.

If A Policeman Must Know The Constitution, Then Why Not A Planner?

All Ideas Having Even The Slightest Redeeming Social Importance - Unorthodox Ideas, Controversial Ideas, Even Ideas Hateful To The Prevailing Climate Of Opinion, Have The Full Protection Of The Guarantees [of The First Amendment].

We Look To The History Of The Time Of Framing And To The Intervening History Of Interpretation. But The Ultimate Question Must Be, What Do The Words Of The Text Mean In Our Time.

No Doubt, There Are Those Who Believe That Judges - And Particularly Dissenting Judges - Write To Hear Themselves Say, As It Were, 'i, I, I.' And No Doubt, There Are Also Those Who Believe That Judges Are, Like Joan Didion, Primarily Engaged In The Writing Of Fiction. I Cannot Agree With Either Of Those Propositions.

If Our Free Society Is To Endure, Those Who Govern Must Recognize Human Dignity And Accept The Enforcement Of Constitutional Limitations On Their Power Conceived By The Framers . . . . Such Recognition Will Not Come From A Technical Understanding Of The Organs Of Government, Or The New Forms Of Wealth They Administer. It Requires Something Different, Something Deeper-a Personal Confrontation With The Wellsprings Of Our Society.

The Door Of The Free Exercise Clause Stands Tightly Closed Against Any Government Regulation Of Religious Beliefs As Such. Government May Neither Compel Affirmation Of A Repugnant Belief, Nor Penalize Or Discriminate Against Individuals Or Groups Because They Hold Views Abhorrent To The Authorities.

Clerks Get Into The Damnedest Wrangles--which Is The Way They Help Me.

We Current Justices Read The Constitution In The Only Way That We Can: As 20th-century Americans.

We Do Not Consecrate The Flag By Punishing Its Desecration, For In Doing So, We Dilute The Freedom This Cherished Emblem Represents.

Congress Acknowledged That Society's Accumulated Myths And Fears About Disability And Disease Are As Handicapping As Are The Physical Limitations That Flow From Actual Impairment.

Debate On Public Issues Should Be Uninhibited, Robust And Wide-open And That...may Well Include Vehement, Caustic, And Sometimes Unpleasantly Sharp Attacks On Government And Public Officials.