Opinion Has A Significance Proportioned

No Judicial System Could Do Society's Work If Each Issue Had To Be Decided Afresh In Every Case Which Raised It.

What Has Once Been Settled By A Precedent Will Not Be Unsettled Overnight, For Certainty And Uniformity Are Gains Not Lightly Sacrificed. Above All Is This True When Honest Men Have Shaped Their Conduct On The Faith Of The Pronouncement.

History Or Custom Or Social Utility Or Some Compelling Sense Of Justice Or Sometimes Perhaps A Semi-intuitive Apprehension Of The Pervading Spirit Of Our Law Must Come To The Rescue Of The Anxious Judge And Tell Him Where To Go.

In Our Worship Of Certainty We Must Distinguish Between The Sound Certainty And The Sham, Between What Is Gold And What Is Tinsel; And Then, When Certainty Is Attained, We Must Remember That It Is Not The Only Good; That We Can Buy It At Too High A Price; That There Is Danger In Perpetual Quiescence As Well As In Perpetual Motion; And That A Compromise Must Be Found In A Principle Of Growth.

Freedom Of Expression Is The Matrix, The Indispensable Condition, Of Nearly Every Other Form Of Freedom.