Word: brennan
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...argument against SALT I is that the Administration was so eager to reach some sort of arms agreement in Moscow that it might have unwittingly bargained away U.S. "strategic sufficiency"-Nixon's term for mutual deterrence. Writing in William F. Buckley Jr.'s National Review, Donald G. Brennan of the Hudson Institute argues bluntly that SALT I is "profoundly unwise," given the Soviet Union's lopsided numerical superiority in ICBMs...
Although the vote was officially 5-4, it was really closer than that. All nine Justices wrote opinions, and only two-Brennan and Marshall-declared that capital punishment per se is cruel and unusual. Douglas, White and Stewart all felt that the death sentences in the murder and two rape cases before the court had been applied "wantonly and freakishly," to use Stewart's words, because only a tiny minority of defendants convicted of similar offenses suffer the same fate. They left open the possibility, however, that a law would be constitutional if it called for capital punishment...
...Supreme Court Justices were broadly agreed that the Constitution does not prohibit private individuals from forming "allwhite, all-black, all-brown and all-yellow clubs." The issue was whether Pennsylvania, by issuing a liquor license to the lodge, was illegally supporting discrimination through state action. Justices Brennan, Douglas and Marshall said it was, since the state issues only a limited number of liquor licenses which it uses to regulate record keeping, physical conditions and even behavior on the premises. Justice Rehnquist, writing for the 6 to 3 majority, disagreed. He declared that the court should not "utterly emasculate the distinction...
...reached through the window and found the gun where the tipster said it would be. (The car was subsequently searched and narcotics found in it.) The officer's action under these circumstances, said Rehnquist, "was designed to ensure his safety, and we conclude that it was reasonable." Dissenting, Brennan, Douglas and Marshall worried about the ease with which a policeman could search anyone and then say that an informant had "told" him what to look for. Said Marshall: "Today's decision invokes the specter of a society in which innocent citizens may be stopped, searched and arrested...
Even with such a winnowing, however, the decision means that large numbers of additional attorneys will now be needed to defend indigents. Where will all the lawyers come from? Douglas noted that "there are 18,000 new admissions to the bar each year." In a separate opinion, Justices Brennan, Douglas and Stewart suggested that law school students might assist indigent defendants under the supervision of a law professor or a practicing attorney...