Potter Stewart's Quotes

Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.

Fairness is what justice really is.

The 4th 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.

Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself.

It must always be remembered that what the Constitution forbids is not all searches and seizures, but unreasonable searches and seizures.

Abortion is inherently different from other medical procedures because no other procedure involves the purposeful termination of a potential life.

A person's mere propinquity to others independently suspected of criminal activity does not give rise to probable cause to search that person.

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material but I know it when I see it.

In fact, a fundamental interdependence exists between the personal right to liberty and the personal right to property.

Swift justice demands more than just swiftness.

The dichotomy between personal liberties and property rights is a false one. Property does not have rights. People have rights.

To force a lawyer on a defendant can only lead him to believe that the law contrives against him.