It has not been unknown that judges persist in error to avoid giving the appearance of weakness and vacillation. - Felix Frankfurter

I do take law very seriously, deeply seriously, because fragile as reason is and limited as law is as the institutionalized medium of reason, that's all we have standing between us and the tyranny of mere will and the cruelty of unbridled, undisciplined feeling.

The line must follow some direction of policy, whether rooted in logic or experience. Lines should not be drawn simply for the sake of drawing lines.

The Amendment nullifies sophisticated as well as simple-minded modes of discrimination.