Gregg v. Georgia (1976) was a landmark decision that overturned, at least in part, the Court's ruling in Furman v. Georgia (1972) that the death penalty, because of the relatively arbitrary way it was handed down, was unconstitutional. This led to an effective ban on the death penalty around the nation. In Gregg, the Court ruled in a 7-2 majority that, under certain circumstances, the death penalty was not necessarily a violation of the "cruel and unusual" clause of the Eighth Amendment. It essentially opened the door for courts to hand down death sentences to individuals again. The seven justices who voted in the majority were Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justices Potter Stewart, Harry Blackmun, Byron White, Lewis Powell, William Rehnquist, and John Paul Stevens. Stewart wrote the majority opinion, citing concerns related to federalism, the "moral consensus" in favor of the death penalty, and the possibility that the death penalty might be a deterrent to criminals. In the minority were Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall. Both crafted dissenting opinions, arguing basically that the death penalty put the state in very murky territory from a moral standpoint, and that little evidence existed to show that capital punishment was an effective deterrent to violent crime.

The decision in Gregg v. Georgia came on a vote of 7 votes for Georgia's position and 2 for the position taken by Gregg.  The justices who voted with the majority were Chief Justice Warren Burger and Associate Justices Potter Stewart, Byron White, Harry Blackmun, Lewis Powell, William Rehnquist, and John Paul Stevens.  The two who voted for Gregg were Associate Justices Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan.

The majority opinion in the case was written by Justice Stewart and dissents werewritten by both justices who voted for Gregg.  There were an unusually large number of concurrences with three concurrences, one each by Rehnquist, White, and Blackmun, with Burger and Rehnquist also joining White's concurrence.