Adaptability Quote by William J. Brennan

If our free society is to endure, those who govern must recognize human dignity and accept the enforcement of constitutional limitations on their power…

— William J. Brennan

Capital punishment...treats members of the human race...as objects to be toyed with and discarded.

— William J. Brennan

Debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust and wide-open and that...may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and…

— William J. Brennan

The modern public school derived from a philosophy of freedom reflected in the First Amendment ... The non-sectarian or secular public school was the…

— William J. Brennan

If a policeman must know the Constitution, then why not a planner?

— William J. Brennan

Our statute books gradually became laden with gross, stereotyped distinctions between the sexes and, indeed, throughout much of the 19th century the position of…

— William J. Brennan

We cannot let colorblindness become myopia which masks the reality that many "created equal" have been treated within our lifetimes as inferior both by…

— William J. Brennan

After each perceived security crisis ended, the United States has remorsefully realized that the abrogation of civil liberties was unnecessary.

— William J. Brennan

The door of the Free Exercise Clause stands tightly closed against any government regulation of religious beliefs as such. Government may neither compel affirmation…

— William J. Brennan

One area of law more than any other besmirches the constitutional vision of human dignity. . . . The barbaric death penalty violates our…

— William J. Brennan

“Thus, we consider this case against the background of a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited,…

— William J. Brennan

Whether to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to prurient interest.

— William J. Brennan