William J. Brennan Jr. Quotes

Preventing the arbitrary administration of punishment is a basic ideal of any society that purports to be governed by the rule of law.

Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.

Finally, is not liberty the restricting of the law only to its rational sphere of organizing the right of the individual to lawful self-defense; of punishing injustice?

.dtc " S. v. Lovett" \\f u, Those who wrote our Constitution well knew the danger inherent in special legislative acts which take away the life, liberty or property of particular named persons because the legislature thinks them guilty of conduct which deserves punishment. They intended to safeguard the people of this country from punishment without trial by duly constituted courts.

No man’s life shall be taken away, no man’s honor or good name shall be stained, no man’s person shall be arrested, restrained, banished, dismembered or in any way punished … unless it be by virtue of equity of some express law of the Country.

Every constitutional standard is engaged in difficult but important line-drawing.

Our Constitution framers were men and women with great foresight. They understood the majesty of the rule of law, and of rule by laws.

Government without a constitution, is a power without a right.

My constitution was destroyed long ago; now I am living under the bylaws.

Where has the genius of the pedistal [sic] of the laws and constitution of our boasted country fled?

According to the laws and constitution of the people, which I [the Lord] have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles.

You either believe in the Constitution, or you don't.

So long as we govern our nation by the letter and spirit of the Bill of Rights, we can be sure that our nation will grow in strength and wisdom and freedom.

The state's interest in effective crime-fighting should never vitiate the citizens' Bill of Rights.

Our constitution enshrines the rule of law, freedom of worship and expression, we cherish these values too.

I am a constitutionalist. I believe in the constitution. I don't believe in altering the constitution.

The Constitution is not a suicide pact.

We have a government of limited power under the Constitution, and we have got to work out our problems on the basis of law.

Law and freedom must be indivisible partners. For without law, there can be no freedom, only choas and disorder; and without freedom, law is but a cynical veneer for injustice and oppression.

Human rights and rule of law are inseparably connected.

When absolutes are abandoned for principles, the U.S. Constitution becomes a blank slate for anyone’s graffiti.

We are a country of laws.

She [Justice sandra Day O'Connor] wrote - and this is one we should all remember - she wrote that even war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens. She held that even this president is not above the law.

In my judgment the people of no nation can lose their liberty so long as a Bill of Rights like ours survives and its basic purposes are conscientiously interpreted, enforced and respected so as to afford continuous protection against old, as well as new, devices and practices which might thwart those purposes. I fear to see the consequences of the Court's practice of substituting its own concepts of decency and fundamental justice for the language of the Bill of Rights as its point of departure in interpreting and enforcing that Bill of Rights.