Poe v. Ullman/Concurrence Brennan

by William J. Brennan, Jr.

United States Supreme Court

367 U.S. 497

Poe  v.  Ullman

 Argued: March 1, 2, 1961. --- Decided: June 19, 1961

Mr. Justice BRENNAN, concurring in the judgment.

I agree that this appeal must be dismissed for failure to present a real and substantial controversy which unequivocally calls for adjudication of the rights claimed in advance of any attempt by the State to curtail them by criminal prosecution. I am not convinced, on this skimpy record, that these appellants as individuals are truly caught in an inescapable dilemma. The true controversy in this case is over the opening of birth-control clinics on a large scale; it is that which the State has prevented in the past, not the use of contraceptives by isolated and individual married couples. It will be time enough to decide the constitutional questions urged upon us when, if ever, that real controversy flares up again. Until it does, or until the State makes a definite and concrete threat to enforce these laws against individual married couples-a threat which it has never made in the past except under the provocation of litigation-this Court may not be compelled to exercise its most delicate power of constitutional adjudication.

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, dissenting.

Notes