The graphic emphasis placed on those first lines is rather hard to square with the proposition that the monument expresses no particular religious preference.
John Paul StevensIn the national debate about a serious issue, it is the expression of the minority's viewpoint that most demands the protection of the First Amendment. Whatever the better policy may be, a full and frank discussion of the costs and benefits of the attempt to prohibit the use of marijuana is far wiser than suppression of speech because it is unpopular.
John Paul StevensAlthough it may not be a castle, [it is the] functional equivalent of a hotel room, a vacation and retirement home or a hunting and fishing cabin.
John Paul StevensEven in high school, a rule that permits only one point of view to be expressed is less likely to produce correct answers than the open discussion of countervailing views.
John Paul StevensAt bottom, the Court's opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self-government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.
John Paul Stevens