The law is not an end in itself, nor does it provide ends. It is preeminently a means to serve what we think is right.

If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.

Law cannot stand aside from the social changes around it.

With respect to the death penalty, I believe that a majority of the Supreme Court will one day accept that when the state punishes with death, it denies the humanity and dignity of the victim and transgresses the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. That day will be a great day for our country, for it will be a great day for our Constitution.

The law is not an end in itself, nor does it provide ends. It is preeminently a means to serve what we think is right.

We hold that the Constitution does not forbid the states minor intrusions into an individual's body under stringently limited conditions.

More fundamentally, however, the answer to petitioners' objection is that there can be no impairment of executive power, whether on the state or federal level, where actions pursuant to that power are impermissible under the Constitution. Where there is no power, there can be no impairment of power.