It Is Difficult To Understand Precisely What

With Respect To The Death Penalty, I Believe That A Majority Of The Supreme Court Will One Day Accept That When The State Punishes With Death, It Denies The Humanity And Dignity Of The Victim And Transgresses The Prohibition Against Cruel And Unusual Punishment. That Day Will Be A Great Day For Our Country, For It Will Be A Great Day For Our Constitution.

The Genius Of The Constitution Rests Not In Any Static Meaning It Might Have Had In A World That Is Dead And Gone, But In The Adaptability Of Its Great Principles To Cope With Current Problems And Current Needs.

Law Cannot Stand Aside From The Social Changes Around It.

The Calculated Killing Of A Human Being By The State Involves, By Its Very Nature, An Absolute Denial Of The Executed Person's Humanity. The Most Vile Murder Does Not, In My View, Release The State From Constitutional Restraint On The Destruction Of Human Dignity.

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 Public Officials.