Sex, a great and mysterious motive force in human life, has indisputably been a subject of absorbing interest to mankind through the ages.

There can be no doubt that our Nation has had a long and unfortunate history of sex discrimination. Traditionally, such discrimination was rationalized by an attitude of "romantic paternalism" which, in practical effect, put women, not on a pedestal, but in a cage.

If we are to be as a shining city upon a hill, it will be because of our ceaseless pursuit of the constitutional ideal of human dignity.

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

Capital punishment...treats members of the human race...as objects to be toyed with and discarded.

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.

Whether to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to prurient interest.