Blackmun Quotes & Sayings

Justice Harry A. Blackmun, a quirky but pivotal member of the Supreme Court for 24 years, was a hoarder. He seems to have kept everything from his boyhood diaries to college correspondence to every scrap of paper that came his way on the Supreme Court. — Cliff Sloan

He was a lifelong Republican, but over the years, Harry Blackmun built a reputation as a liberal, sometimes defiant Justice, whose fierce protection of individual rights led some to anoint him the moral conscience of the court. — Judy Woodruff

I don't believe in categories of any kind, and when you speak of problems between blacks and whites in the U.S.A. you are referring to categories again. — Duke Ellington

By placing discretion in the hands of an official to grant or deny a license, such a statute creates a threat of censorship that by its very existence chills free speech. — Harry A. Blackmun

Who is to say that 5 men 10 years ago were right whereas 5 men looking the other direction today are wrong. — Harry A. Blackmun

The mandated description of fetal characteristics at two-week intervals, no matter how objective, is plainly overinclusive. [It is] not medical information that is always relevant to the woman's decision, and it may serve to confuse and punish her and to heighten her anxiety. — Harry A. Blackmun

The old queen had failed them so miserably... She was such a bitter disappointment. But Ursula was different. There was no one to distract her, no one for her to love. She was alone in the world, alone in her grief, and alone with her pain. No, she wouldn't disappoint them. Unlike the old queen, Ursula would be able to fill her heart with hate. — Serena Valentino

What the Court really has refused to recognize is the fundamental interest all individuals have in controlling the nature of their intimate associations. — Harry A. Blackmun

Disapproval of homosexuality cannot justify invading the houses, hearts and minds of citizens who choose to live their lives differently. — Harry A. Blackmun

The flaw in the statute is that in all its applications, it operates on a fundamentally mistaken premise that high solicitation costs are an accurate measure of fraud. — Harry A. Blackmun

We're all eccentrics. We're nine prima donnas. — Harry A. Blackmun

Justice Harry Blackmun's majority opinion in Roe v. Wade was all about privacy, but the most private parts of a woman's body and the most private decisions she will ever make have never been more public. Everyone gets to weigh in. Even, according to the five conservative Catholic men on the Supreme Court, her employer. — Katha Pollitt

It is somewhat ironic to have us so deeply disturbed over a program where race is an element of consciousness, and yet to be aware of the fact, as we are, that institutions of higher learning ... have been given conceded preferences to the children of alumni. — Harry A. Blackmun

If there is any truth to the old proverb that "one who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client," the Court now bestows a constitutional right on one to make a fool of himself. — Harry A. Blackmun

The Free Exercise Clause at the very least was designed to guarantee freedom of conscience by prohibiting any degree of compulsion in matters of belief. It was offended by a burden on one's religion. The Establishment Clause can be understood as designed in part to ensure that the advancement of religion comes only from the voluntary efforts of its proponents and not from support by the state. Religious groups are to prosper or perish on the intrinsic merit and attraction of their beliefs and practices. — Harry A. Blackmun

The states are not free, under the guise of protecting maternal health or potential life, to intimidate women into continuing pregnancies. — Harry A. Blackmun

I hope you will be yourself, human, even a little sentimental, possessed of a sense of humor and a sense of humility ... There are arrogant people in this world and, what is worse, arrogant judges. — Harry A. Blackmun

The right to privacy ... is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. — Harry A. Blackmun

From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death ... I fell morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed. — Harry A. Blackmun

The right of an individual to conduct intimate relationships in the intimacy of his or her own home seems to me to be the heart of the Constitution's protection of privacy. — Harry A. Blackmun

If [a United States Supreme Court Justice is] in the doghouse with the Chief [Justice], he gets the crud. He gets the tax cases. — Harry A. Blackmun

I am more optimistic though, that this court will eventually conclude that the effort to eliminate arbitrariness while preserving fairness in the infliction of [death] is so plainly doomed to failure that is - and the death penalty - must be abandoned altogether. I may not live to see that day, but I have faith that eventually it will arrive. — Harry A. Blackmun

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. — Harry A. Blackmun

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. — Harry A. Blackmun

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. — Harry A. Blackmun

If god had intended us to follow recipes, He wouldn't have given us grandmothers. — Linda Henley

Do you like him? Ty asked. "Not that I care." "I do," I said, because it was true. Even though it didn't matter anymore. "Not that I care you don't care. Though you clearly do care, and I don't care about that either." "Well, I don't care that you don't care that I don't care. In fact i'm glad. Because, um, if I were seeming someone that I liked, I'd want you to be happy for me.""Are you seeing someone?" I asked, pretty sure he wasn't. "Not that I care. — Sarah Rees Brennan

The greatest enemy of authority, therefore, is contempt, and the surest way to undermine it is laughter. — Hannah Arendt

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. — Harry A. Blackmun

It is precisely because the issue raised by this case touches the heart of what makes individuals what they are that we should be especially sensitive to the rights of those whose choices upset the majority. — Harry A. Blackmun

We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer. — Harry A. Blackmun