The Flaw In The Statute Is That

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 With A Majority Of This Court, To Develop Procedural And Substantive Rules That Would Lend More Than The Mere Appearance Of Fairness To The Death Penalty Endeavor. Rather Than Continue To Coddle The Court's Delusion That The Desired Level Of Fairness Has Been Achieved And The Need For Regulation Eviscerated, I Feel Morally And Intellectually Obligated To Concede That The Death Penalty Experiment Has Failed.

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 Its Imprimatur On A Particular Religion, It Conveys A Message Of Exclusion To All Those Who Do Not Adhere To The Favored Beliefs. A Government Cannot Be Premised On The Belief That All Persons Are Created Equal When It Asserts That God Prefers Some.

This Court Repeatedly Has Recognized That The Whole Subject Of The Domestic Relations Of Husband And Wife Belongs To The Laws Of The States And Not To The Laws Of The United States.

From This Day Forward, I No Longer Shall Tinker With The Machinery Of Death.

Abortion 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.