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. William J. Brennan More Quotes by William J. Brennan More Quotes From William J. Brennan Sex and obscenity are not synonymous. Obscene material is material which deals with sex in a manner appealing to prurient interest. William J. Brennan obscenity interest sex We hold that the Constitution does not forbid the states minor intrusions into an individual's body under stringently limited conditions. William J. Brennan freedom political doe 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. William J. Brennan punishment purpose principles 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. William J. Brennan judging writing believe Capital punishment...treats members of the human race...as objects to be toyed with and discarded. William J. Brennan punishment treats race Clerks get into the damnedest wrangles--which is the way they help me. William J. Brennan clerks helping way 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. William J. Brennan religious philosophy school The concept of military necessity is seductively broad, and has a dangerous plasticity. Because they invariably have the visage of overriding importance, there is always a temptation to invoke security "necessities" to justify an encroachment upon civil liberties. For that reason, the military-security argument must be approached with a healthy skepticism. William J. Brennan healthy military temptation 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. William J. Brennan religious views school 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 William J. Brennan exercise justice order Whether to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to prurient interest. William J. Brennan taken law average The Bill of Rights never gets off the page and into the lives of most Americans. William J. Brennan bills pages rights 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. William J. Brennan war book sex 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. William J. Brennan punishment believe country Appellant constituted a legitimate class of one, and this provides a basis for Congress's decision to proceed with dispatch with respect to his materials. William J. Brennan congress decision class 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. William J. Brennan ultimate-questions mean looks Use of a mentally ill person's involuntary confession is antithetical to the notion of fundamental fairness embodied in the due process clause. William J. Brennan fairness use fundamentals 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. William J. Brennan executive-power levels answers
