Harry A. BlackmunThinkers

Abortion is an issue that raises moral and spiritual questions over which honorable persons can disagree sincerely and profoundly. But those disagreements did not then and do not now relieve us of our duty to apply the Constitution faithfully.

Affirmative action is defensible on the grounds that 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 equally, we must treat them differently.

Capital punishment is an experiment that has failed.

Capital punishment is the wrongheaded tinkering with the machinery of death. And rather than continue to coddle the Court's delusion that the desired level of fairness has been achieved and the need for regulation eviscerated, we must morally and intellectually concede that the death penalty experiment has failed.

Free Exercise Clause is designed to guarantee freedom of conscience by prohibiting any degree of compulsion in matters of belief.

Racism is a thing which, in order to get beyond, we must first take account of race, and in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.

Roe v. Wade is to be decided on the grounds of the right to privacy, which is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.

Roe v. Wade is to be decided on the grounds that the judiciary is not in the position to speculate upon the difficult question of when life begins since even those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus.

University of California Regents v. Bakke (1978) is a decision that found that 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 equally, we must treat them differently.