The framers knew that liberty is a fragile thing, and so should we.

We current justices read the Constitution in the only way that we can: as 20th-century Americans.

The framers knew that liberty is a fragile thing, and so should we.

Consequences flow from a justice's interpretation in a direct and immediate way. A judicial decision respecting the incompatibility of Jim Crow with a constitutional guarantee of equality is not simply a contemplative exercise in defining the shape of a just society. It is an order

It is difficult to understand precisely what the state hopes to achieve by promoting the creation and perpetuation of a subclass of illiterates within our boundaries, surely adding to the problems and costs of unemployment, welfare and crime.

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.

Law cannot stand aside from the social changes around it.