Byron White Quotes

• A right to jury trial is granted to criminal defendants in order to prevent oppression by the Government.

  Byron White

  Government, Order, Criminals

  47 Copy quote

• We're the only branch of government that explains itself in writing every time itmakes a decision.

  Byron White

  Writing, Government, Decision

  9 Copy quote

• When the whistle blows you have only a limited amount of time to do what you have to do. You either do it then or you don't do it at all.

  Byron White

  Blow, Amount

  10 Copy quote

• The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution.... There should be, therefore, great resistance to ... redefining the category of rights deemed to be fundamental. Otherwise, the Judiciary necessarily takes to itself further authority to govern the country without express constitutional authority.

  Byron White

  Country, Rights, Law

  Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186, 1986.

  12 Copy quote

• The 1st Amendment protects the right to speak, not the right to spend.

  Byron White

  History, Speak, Amendments

  8 Copy quote

• The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution.

  Byron White

  Law, Roots, Judging

  Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186, 1985.

  7 Copy quote

• The law is constantly based on notions of morality, and if all laws representing essentially moral choices are to be invalidated under the due process clause, the courts will be very busy indeed.

  Byron White

  Law, Choices, Morality

  19 Copy quote

• The role of the judge is simply to decide cases.

  Byron White

  Judging, Roles, Cases

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

  4 Copy quote

• To exclude all jurors who would be in the slightest way effected by the prospect of the death penalty would be to deprive the defendant of the impartial jury to which he or she is entitled under the law.

  Byron White

  Law, Way, Would Be

  8 Copy quote

• Sports constantly make demands on the participant for top performance, and they develop integrity, self-reliance and initiative. They teach you a lot about working in groups, without being unduly submerged in the group.

  Byron White

  Sports, Integrity, Self

  6 Copy quote

• It is not better that all felony suspects die than that they escape. Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so. It is no doubt unfortunate when a suspect who is in sight escapes, but the fact that the police arrive a little late or are a little slower afoot does not always justify killing the suspect.

  Byron White

  Sight, Police, Doubt

  Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 1985.

  7 Copy quote

• The risk of racial prejudice infecting a capital sentencing proceeding is especially serious in light of the complete finality of the death sentence.

  Byron White

  Light, Risk, Prejudice

  68 Copy quote

• The issue presented is whether the Federal Constitution confers a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy, and hence invalidates the laws of the many States that still make such conduct illegal, and have done so for a very long time.... Respondent would have us announce, as the Court of Appeals did, a fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy. This we are quite unwilling to do.

  Byron White

  Law, Issues, Long

  Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186, 1986.

  6 Copy quote

• Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from the failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so.

  Byron White

  Doe, Use, Failing

  7 Copy quote

• Maintaining order in the classrooms has never been easy and it is evident that the school setting requires some easing of the restrictions to which searches by public authorities are ordinarily subject.

  Byron White

  School, Order, Maintaining

  8 Copy quote

• While the collateral consequences of drugs such as cocaine are indisputably severe, they are not unlike those which flow from the misuse of other, legal, substances.

  Byron White

  Knowledge, Responsibility, Science

  Harmelin v. Michigan 501 U.S. 957 at 1023, 1991.

  4 Copy quote

• As an exercise of raw judicial power, the Court perhaps has authority to do what it does today; but, in my view, its judgment is an improvident and extravagant exercise of the power of judicial review that the Constitution extends to this Court.

  Byron White

  Exercise, Views, Judicial Power

  Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179 at 222, 1973.

  7 Copy quote

• Respondent would have us announce a fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy. This we are quite unwilling to do.

  Byron White

  Fundamentals, Homosexual, Unwilling

  4 Copy quote

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