"Even laws enacted for broad and ambitious purposes often can be explained by reference to legitimate public policies which justify the incidental disadvantages they impose on certain persons. Amendment 2, however, in making a general announcement that gays and lesbians shall not have any particular protections from the law, inflicts on them immediate, continuing, and real injuries that outrun and belie any legitimate justifications that may be claimed for it. We conclude that, in addition to the far-reaching deficiencies of Amendment 2 that we have noted, the principles it offends, in another sense, are conventional and venerable; a law must bear a rational relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose, Kadrmas v. Dickinson Public Schools, 487 U. S. 450, 462 (1988), and Amendment 2 does not."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Majority opinion in Romer v. Evans (decided 20 May, 1996), 517 U.S. 620, 635, joined by Associate Justices Stevens, O'Connor, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Breyer
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Stephen Breyer
6 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Stephen Breyer →
Related Quotes
"Do you think things outside the United States cannot be relevant to an understanding of how to apply the American Con…"
"Very, Very Wrong... I wrote a dissent — and that's the way it works... [the court's decision was procedural] and so w…"
"[S]omething I enjoy is talking to [all kinds of students]. And they'll . . . ask me . . . "What is it you find partic…"
"I take this around at my job. (Holds up a copy of the US Constitution.) People have come to accept this Constitution,…"
"Today, Justice Breyer announces his intention to step down from active service after four decades . . . on the federa…"
"Individual rights have been recognized by our jurisprudence only after long and costly struggles. They should not be …"
"Common sense and justice dictate that a citizen accused of a crime should have the fullest hearing possible, plus the…"
"Experience demonstrates that in time of war individual liberties cannot always be entrusted safely to uncontrolled ad…"
"Criminal punishment for disobedience of an arbitrary and invalid order is objectionable regardless of whether the ord…"
"That an individual should languish in prison for five years without being accorded the opportunity of proving that th…"