The principle inherent in the clause that prohibits pointless infliction of excessive punishment when less severe punishment can adequately achieve the same purposes invalidates the punishment.
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Other Quotes by "William J. Brennan, Jr."

Law cannot stand aside from the social changes around it.
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No longer is the female destined solely for the home and the rearing of the family and only the male for the marketplace and the world of ideas.
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Sex and obscenity are not synonymous. Obscene material is material which deals with sex in a manner appealing to prurient interest.
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We current justices read the Constitution in the only way that we can: as 20th-century Americans.
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If the right to privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion.
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