Word: brennan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Supreme Court Associate Justice William J. Brennan Jr. on September 5 called for the high court to reverse its position and declare capital punishment unconstitutional...
Returning to the school where he earned a law degree in 1931, Brennan told a Sanders Theater throng that the Eighth Amendment prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishment" does not clearly dictate a position on the death penalty...
...seems we just can't know what punishment the framers considered cruel and unusual," Brennan said, adding that the "majestic generality" of the Constitution paves the way for modern interpretations by jurists...
...Brennan's speech was the 26th Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Lecture. He was the first sitting justice to deliver the annual address, which this year drew more than 1000 of those attending Harvard's 350th anniversary celebration...
...ruling on capital punishment, Brennan said, the court sometimes goes too far in trying to discern the intentions of the Constitution's 18th-century framers. He said the court should more actively interpret the law to bring about effects that benefit society...