William J. Brennan Quotes

Quotes about:

• We must meet the challenge rather than wish it were not before us.

  William J. Brennan

  Bad Day, Challenges, Wish

  42 Copy quote

• The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to 'create' rights. Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting.

  William J. Brennan

  Freedom, Rights, Government

  66 Copy quote

• The genius of the Constitution rests not in any static meaning it might have had in a world that is dead and gone, but in the adaptability of its great principles to cope with current problems and current needs.

  William J. Brennan

  Principles, Needs, Gone

  "The Constitution of the United States: Contemporary Ratification" (speech),Washington, D.C., 12 Oct. 1985

  33 Copy quote

• If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.

  William J. Brennan

  Government, Expression, Ideas

  "Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397". 1989.

  73 Copy quote

• The quest for freedom, dignity, and the rights of man will never end.

  William J. Brennan

  Men, Rights, Quests

  20 Copy quote

• Lawyers, before any other group, must continue to point out how the system is really working-how it actually affects real people. They must constantly demonstrate to courts and legislatures alike the tragic results of legal nonintervention. They must highlight how legal doctrines no longer bear any relation to reality, whether in landlord and tenant law, holder in due course law, or any other law. In sum, lawyers must bring real morality into the legal consciousness

  William J. Brennan

  Real, Law, People

  27 Copy quote

• 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

  Issues, Government, Freedom Of Speech

  New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964)

  9 Copy quote

• Law cannot stand aside from the social changes around it.

  William J. Brennan

  Law, Social, Social Change

  19 Copy quote

• The law is not an end in itself, nor does it provide ends. It is preeminently a means to serve what we think is right.

  William J. Brennan

  Mean, Thinking, Law

  "Author stresses Justice Brennan's continued relevance" by Bill Mears, www.cnn.com. September 29, 2010.

  12 Copy quote

• If the right to privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion.

  William J. Brennan

  Mean, Privacy, Married

  "Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438". Writing for the court, 1972.

  59 Copy quote

• The Constitution was framed fundamentally as a bulwark against governmental power, and preventing the arbitrary administration of punishment is a basic ideal of any society that purports to be governed by the rule of law.

  William J. Brennan

  Law, Punishment, Arbitrary

  "McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279". Dissenting opinion, 1987.

  8 Copy quote

• We cannot let colorblindness become myopia which masks the reality that many "created equal" have been treated within our lifetimes as inferior both by the law and by their fellow citizens.

  William J. Brennan

  Reality, Law, Citizens

  25 Copy quote

• The framers knew that liberty is a fragile thing, and so should we.

  William J. Brennan

  Liberty, Fragile Things, Should

  19 Copy quote

• We current Justices read the Constitution in the only way that we can: as Twentieth Century Americans. 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. For the genius of the Constitution rests not in any static meaning it might have had in a world that is dead and gone, but in the adaptability of its great principles to cope with current problems and current needs.

  William J. Brennan

  Mean, Justice, Principles

  "The Constitution of the United States: Contemporary Ratification" (speech),Washington, D.C., 12 Oct. 1985

  25 Copy quote

• If we are to be as a shining city upon a hill, it will be because of our ceaseless pursuit of the constitutional ideal of human dignity.

  William J. Brennan

  Cities, Shining, Religion

  14 Copy quote

• There is no such thing as a false idea.

  William J. Brennan

  Government, Ideas

  9 Copy quote

• After each perceived security crisis ended, the United States has remorsefully realized that the abrogation of civil liberties was unnecessary.

  William J. Brennan

  Political, Liberty, United States

  24 Copy quote

• If our free society is to endure, and I know it will, those who govern must recognize that the Framers of the Constitution limited their power in order to preserve human dignity and the air of freedom which is our proudest heritage.

  William J. Brennan

  Air, Order, Heritage

  "Reason and Passion: Justice Brennan's Enduring Influence". Book by Brennan Center for Justice, 1997.

  19 Copy quote

• You in the media ought to be ashamed of yourselves to call the provisions and the guarantees of the Bill of Rights 'Technicalities'. They're not. We are what we are because of those guarantees.

  William J. Brennan

  Rights, Media, Bills

  17 Copy quote

• Punishing desecration of the flag dilutes the very freedom that makes this emblem so revered.

  William J. Brennan

  Flags, Emblems

  "On Flag Burning, Trump Differs With Scalia but Agrees With Clinton" by Jacob Sullum, reason.com. November 29, 2016.

  16 Copy quote

• While the machinery of law enforcement and indeed the nature of crime itself have changed dramatically since the Fourth Amendment became part of the Nation's fundamental law in 1791, what the Framers understood then remains true today - that the task of combating crime and convicting the guilty will in every era seem of such critical and pressing concern that we may be lured by the temptations of expediency into forsaking our commitment to protecting individual liberty and privacy.

  William J. Brennan

  Commitment, Law, Temptation

  18 Copy quote

• Perhaps the bleakest fact of all is that the death penalty is imposed not only in a freakish and discriminatory manner, but also in some cases upon defendants who are actually innocent.

  William J. Brennan

  Facts, Death Penalty, Innocent

  26 Copy quote

• Religious conflict can be the bloodiest and cruelest conflicts that turn people into fanatics.

  William J. Brennan

  Religious, People, Atheism

  27 Copy quote

• There can be no doubt that our Nation has had a long and unfortunate history of sex discrimination. Traditionally, such discrimination was rationalized by an attitude of "romantic paternalism" which, in practical effect, put women, not on a pedestal, but in a cage.

  William J. Brennan

  Sex, Attitude, Long

  82 Copy quote

• Authoritative interpretations of the First Amendment guarantees have consistently refused to recognize an exception for any test of truth whether administered by judges, juries, or administrative officials and especially one that puts the burden of proving truth on the speaker.

  William J. Brennan

  Judging, Freedom Of Speech, Guarantees

  "New York Times Co. v. Sullivan". 1964.

  11 Copy quote

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