Potter Stewart

Potter Stewart (January 23, 1915–December 7, 1985) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving on the Court from 1958 to 1981.

Quotes

 * The Fourth Amendment and the personal rights it secures have a long history. At the very core stands the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.
 * Silverman v. United States, 365 U.S. 511 (1961).


 * I think that the court has misapplied a great constitutional principle. I cannot see how 'official religion' is established by letting those who want to say a prayer say it. On the contrary, I think that to deny the wish of these school children to join in reciting this prayer is to deny them the opportunity of sharing in the spiritual heritage of the nation.
 * Dissenting, Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962).


 * I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [hard-core pornography]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.
 * Concurring, Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964).


 * Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.
 * Dissenting, United States v. Ginzburg, 383 U.S. 463 (1965).


 * In the governmental structure created by our Constitution, the Executive is endowed with enormous power in the two related areas of national defense and international relations. This power, largely unchecked by the Legislative [1] and Judicial [2] branches, has been pressed to the very hilt since the advent of the nuclear missile age. For better or for worse, the simple fact is that a President of the United States possesses vastly greater constitutional independence in these two vital areas of power than does, say, a prime minister of a country with a parliamentary form of government. In the absence of the governmental checks and balances present in other areas of our national life, the only effective restraint upon executive policy and power in the areas of national defense and international affairs may lie in an enlightened citizenry — in an informed and critical public opinion which alone can here protect the values of democratic government. For this reason, it is perhaps here that a press that is alert, aware, and free most vitally serves the basic purpose of the First Amendment. For, without an informed and free press, there cannot be an enlightened people.
 * Potter Stewart, (, 1971).


 * Several decisions of this Court make clear that freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and family life is one of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. . . . That right necessarily includes the right of a woman to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.
 * Concurring, Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 169-170 (1973).


 * The Executive must have the largely unshared duty to determine and preserve the degree of internal security necessary to exercise that power successfully. It is an awesome responsibility requiring judgment and wisdom of a high order. A very first principle of that wisdom would be an insistence upon avoiding secrecy for its own sake. For when everything is classified, then nothing is classified and the system becomes one to be disregarded by the cynical or the careless and to be manipulated by those intent on self-protection or self-promotion.
 * Security Classification Reform Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations of the House of Representatives. Ninetythird Congress. Second Session. 1974


 * But just because you have a right to do something doesn’t mean it’s right to do it.
 * The Law And Potter Stewart: An Interview With Justice Potter Stewart (1983) American Heritage, Volume 35, Issue 1