The Framers Knew That Liberty Is A

At Bottom, The Battle Has Been Waged On Moral Grounds. The Country Has Debated Whether A Society For Which The Dignity Of The Individual Is The Supreme Value Can, Without A Fundamental Inconsistency, Follow The Practice Of Deliberately Putting One Of Its Members To Death.

We Current Justices Read The Constitution In The Only Way That We Can: As Twentieth Century Americans. We Look To The History Of The Time Of Framing And To The Intervening History Of Interpretation. But The Ultimate Question Must Be, What Do The Words Of The Text Mean In Our Time. For 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.

Our Statute Books Gradually Became Laden With Gross, Stereotyped Distinctions Between The Sexes And, Indeed, Throughout Much Of The 19th Century The Position Of Women In Our Society Was, In Many Respects, Comparable To That Of Blacks Under The Pre-civil War Slave Codes.

Use Of A Mentally Ill Person's Involuntary Confession Is Antithetical To The Notion Of Fundamental Fairness Embodied In The Due Process Clause.

We Do Not Consecrate The Flag By Punishing Its Desecration, For In Doing So, We Dilute The Freedom This Cherished Emblem Represents.