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John Marshall Harlan II
8 quotes
“This 'liberty' is not a series of isolated points pricked out in terms of the taking of property; the freedom of speech, press, and religion; the right to keep and bear arms; the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures; and so on. It is a rational continuum which, broadly speaking, includes a freedom from all substantial arbitrary impositions and purposeless restraints.”
John Marshall Harlan II (1899–1971) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Poe v. Ullman, 367 U.S. 497, 522 (1961).
“These decisions give support to a current mistaken view of the Constitution and the constitutional function of this court. This view, in short, is that every major social ill in this country can find its cure in some constitutional principle and that this court should take the lead in promoting reform when other branches of government fail to act. The Constitution is not a panacea for every blot upon the public welfare nor should this court, ordained as a judicial body, be thought of as a general haven of reform movements.”
John Marshall Harlan II (1899–1971) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dissenting in Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 589 (1964).
“The Constitution is not a panacea for every blot upon the public welfare, nor should this Court, ordained as a judicial body, be thought of as a general haven for reform movements.”
John Marshall Harlan II (1899–1971) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dissenting in Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 624-25 (1964).
“This Court, limited in function in accordance with that premise, does not serve its high purpose when it exceeds its authority, even to satisfy justified impatience with the slow workings of the political process. For when, in the name of constitutional interpretation, the Court adds something to the Constitution that was deliberately excluded from it, the Court, in reality, substitutes its view of what should be so for the amending process.”
John Marshall Harlan II (1899–1971) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dissenting in Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 624-25 (1964).
“The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment stands, in my opinion, on its own bottom.”
John Marshall Harlan II (1899–1971) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Concurring in Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965).
“Without this guarantee that one may not be deprived of his rights, neither liberty nor property, without due process of law, the State's monopoly over techniques for binding conflict resolution could hardly be said to be acceptable under our scheme of things. Only by providing that the social enforcement mechanism must function strictly within these bounds can we hope to maintain an ordered society that is also just.”
John Marshall Harlan II (1899–1971) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371, 374-75 (1971).
“One man's vulgarity is another's lyric.”
John Marshall Harlan II (1899–1971) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971).
“The danger is perhaps not great if the people of one State, through their legislature, decide that Lady Chatterley's Lover goes so far beyond the acceptable standards of candor that it will be deemed offensive and non-sellable, for the State next door is still free to make its own choice. At least we do not have one uniform standard. But the dangers to free thought and expression are truly great if the Federal Government imposes a blanket ban over the Nation on such a book. [...] The fact that the people of one State cannot read some of the works of D. H. Lawrence seems to me, if not wise or desirable, at least acceptable. But that no person in the United States should be allowed to do so seems to me to be intolerable, and violative of both the letter and spirit of the First Amendment.”
John Marshall Harlan II (1899–1971) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Concurring in Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, 496 (1957) (striking down a federal censorship act as unconstitutional).