Harry A. Blackmun Quotes

21 quotes in 426 categories

• In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons…
• From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. ... I fell morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that…
• I am more optimistic though, that this court will eventually conclude that the effort to eliminate arbitrariness while preserving fairness in the infliction of [death]…
• I cannot see any of these death penalty cases where there hasn't been a violation on the ground of either poverty or race. If we…
• Of one thing, however, I am certain. Just as an execution without adequate safeguards is unacceptable, so too is an execution when the condemned prisoner…
• By placing discretion in the hands of an official to grant or deny a license, such a statute creates a threat of censorship that by…
• From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. For more than 20 years I have endeavored--indeed, I have struggled--along…
• What the Court really has refused to recognize is the fundamental interest all individuals have in controlling the nature of their intimate associations.
• The right of an individual to conduct intimate relationships in the intimacy of his or her own home seems to me to be the heart…
• If [a United States Supreme Court Justice is] in the doghouse with the Chief [Justice], he gets the crud. He gets the tax cases.
• We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable…
• From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death,
• The death penalty experiment has failed.
• I hope you will be yourself, human, even a little sentimental, possessed of a sense of humor and a sense of humility. . . .…
• Disapproval of homosexuality cannot justify invading the houses, hearts and minds of citizens who choose to live their lives differently.
• Who is to say that 5 men 10 years ago were right whereas 5 men looking the other direction today are wrong.
• The flaw in the statute is that in all its applications, it operates on a fundamentally mistaken premise that high solicitation costs are an accurate…
• The mixing of government and religion can be a threat to free government, even if no one is forced to participate.... When the government puts…
• The states are not free, under the guise of protecting maternal health or potential life, to intimidate women into continuing pregnancies.
• It is precisely because the issue raised by this case touches the heart of what makes individuals what they are that we should be especially…

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