Harry A. Blackmun

If there is any truth to the old proverb that "one who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client,"…

— Harry A. Blackmun

The states are not free, under the guise of protecting maternal health or potential life, to intimidate women into continuing pregnancies.

— Harry A. Blackmun

The death penalty experiment has failed.

— Harry A. Blackmun

The mandated description of fetal characteristics at two-week intervals, no matter how objective, is plainly overinclusive. [It is] not medical information that…

— Harry A. Blackmun

I hope you will be yourself, human, even a little sentimental, possessed of a sense of humor and a sense of humility.…

— Harry A. Blackmun

This Court repeatedly has recognized that the whole subject of the domestic relations of husband and wife belongs to the laws of…

— Harry A. Blackmun

We're all eccentrics. We're nine prima donnas.

— Harry A. Blackmun

By placing discretion in the hands of an official to grant or deny a license, such a statute creates a threat of…

— Harry A. Blackmun

From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death,

— Harry A. Blackmun

I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.

— Harry A. Blackmun

In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to…

— Harry A. Blackmun

Of one thing, however, I am certain. Just as an execution without adequate safeguards is unacceptable, so too is an execution when…

— Harry A. Blackmun

Disapproval of homosexuality cannot justify invading the houses, hearts and minds of citizens who choose to live their lives differently.

— Harry A. Blackmun

Abortion raises moral and spiritual questions over which honorable persons can disagree sincerely and profoundly. But those disagreements did not then and…

— Harry A. Blackmun

From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. ... I fell morally and intellectually obligated simply…

— Harry A. Blackmun

What the Court really has refused to recognize is the fundamental interest all individuals have in controlling the nature of their intimate…

— Harry A. Blackmun

If [a United States Supreme Court Justice is] in the doghouse with the Chief [Justice], he gets the crud. He gets the…

— Harry A. Blackmun

The right of an individual to conduct intimate relationships in the intimacy of his or her own home seems to me to…

— Harry A. Blackmun

The mixing of government and religion can be a threat to free government, even if no one is forced to participate.... When…

— Harry A. Blackmun

From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. For more than 20 years I have endeavored--indeed,…

— Harry A. Blackmun

The flaw in the statute is that in all its applications, it operates on a fundamentally mistaken premise that high solicitation costs…

— Harry A. Blackmun

The right to privacy... is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.

— Harry A. Blackmun

“It is somewhat ironic to have us so deeply disturbed over a program where race is an element of consciousness, and yet…

— Harry A. Blackmun

I cannot see any of these death penalty cases where there hasn't been a violation on the ground of either poverty or…

— Harry A. Blackmun

The Free Exercise Clause at the very least was designed to guarantee freedom of conscience by prohibiting any degree of compulsion in…

— Harry A. Blackmun