John Marshall Harlan II: Amendment

John Marshall Harlan II was American judge and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1899-1971). Explore interesting quotes on amendment.

John Marshall Harlan II: 18 quotes 0 likes

“This Court, limited in function in accordance with that premise, does not serve its high purpose when it exceeds its authority, even to satisfy justified impatience with the slow workings of the political process. For when, in the name of constitutional interpretation, the Court adds something to the Constitution that was deliberately excluded from it, the Court, in reality, substitutes its view of what should be so for the amending process.”

John Marshall Harlan II

Dissenting in Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 624-25 (1964).

Reality

“The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment stands, in my opinion, on its own bottom.”

John Marshall Harlan II

Concurring in Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965).

“The danger is perhaps not great if the people of one State, through their legislature, decide that Lady Chatterley's Lover goes so far beyond the acceptable standards of candor that it will be deemed offensive and non-sellable, for the State next door is still free to make its own choice. At least we do not have one uniform standard. But the dangers to free thought and expression are truly great if the Federal Government imposes a blanket ban over the Nation on such a book. […] The fact that the people of one State cannot read some of the works of D. H. Lawrence seems to me, if not wise or desirable, at least acceptable. But that no person in the United States should be allowed to do so seems to me to be intolerable, and violative of both the letter and spirit of the First Amendment.”

John Marshall Harlan II

Concurring in Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, 496 (1957) (striking down a federal censorship act as unconstitutional).

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