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. |
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. |
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. |
The quest for freedom, dignity, and the rights of man will never end. |
There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes. |
Use of a mentally ill person's involuntary confession is antithetical to the notion of fundamental fairness embodied in the due process clause. |
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. |
We current justices read the Constitution in the only way that we can: as 20th-century Americans. |
We hold that the Constitution does not forbid the states minor intrusions into an individual's body under stringently limited conditions. |
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. |