Quotes by William J. Brennan, Jr.

About William J. Brennan, Jr.:

William Joseph Brennan, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1956 to 1990. As the seventh longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history, he was known for being a leader of the Court's liberal wing.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

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

William J. Brennan, Jr.

We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so, we dilute the freedom this cherished emblem represents.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

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, Jr.

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, Jr.

Death is not only an unusually severe punishment, unusual in its pain, in its finality and in its enormity, but is serves no penal purpose more effectively than a less severe punishment.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

Sex, a great and mysterious motive force in human life, has indisputably been a subject of absorbing interest to mankind through the ages.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

No longer is the female destined solely for the home and the rearing of the family and only the male for the marketplace and the world of ideas.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

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, Jr.

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.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

Sex and obscenity are not synonymous. Obscene material is material which deals with sex in a manner appealing to prurient interest.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

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, Jr.

We current justices read the Constitution in the only way that we can: as 20th-century Americans.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

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, Jr.

Law cannot stand aside from the social changes around it.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

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

William J. Brennan, Jr.

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, Jr.

Author Bio

  • NameWilliam J. Brennan, Jr.
  • DescriptionAmerican judge
  • BornApril 25, 1906
  • DiedJuly 24, 1997
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionLawyer; Judge
  • AwardsPresidential Medal Of Freedom; Four Freedoms Award - Freedom Medal