Congress Quotes - Page 24

• Members of the Congress, the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress. We are all trustees for the American people, custodians of the American heritage. It is my task to report the State of the Union--to improve it is the task of us all.

  John F. Kennedy

  People, Progress, Custodians

  Kennedy, John F. (1963). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962”, p.5, Best Books on

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• Our Constitution wisely assigns both joint and separate roles to each branch of the government; and a President and a Congress who hold each other in mutual respect will neither permit nor attempt any trespass.

  John F. Kennedy

  Government, President, Roles

  Kennedy, John F. (1962). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961”, p.19, Best Books on

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• The First Amendment's language leaves no room for inference that abridgments of speech and press can be made just because they are slight. That Amendment provides, in simple words, that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." I read "no law . . . abridging" to mean no law abridging.

  Hugo Black

  Mean, Simple, Law

  Concurring opinion, Smith v. California, 361 U.S. 147, 1959.

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• Citizenship is no light trifle to be jeopardized any moment Congress decides to do so under the name of one of its general or implied grants of power.

  Hugo Black

  Light, Names, Citizenship

  "Afroyim v. Rusk, 387 U.S. 267 - 68". 1967.

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• Congress shall never disarm any citizen unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion.

  James Madison

  Citizens, Rebellion, Has Beens

  James Madison, Gaillard Hunt, James Brown Scott (1999). “The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: Which Framed the Constitution of the United States of America”, p.658, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

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• I think the Supreme Court has, as an equal branch of government, the ability to overrule Congress and the president. But I also feel it's the role of the Congress and the president to push back. I mean I think it's important that they are understood as equal branches of government.

  Rick Santorum

  Mean, Thinking, Government

  Source: www.nbcnews.com

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• If we are to change America, we must change the United States Congress.

  Jack Kemp

  America, United States, Ifs

  "In Their Own Words; Excerpts From The Remarks By Housing Secretary Kemp", www.nytimes.com. August 19, 1992.

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• I wouldn't approach the issue of judging in the way the president does. Judges can't rely on what's in their heart. It's not the heart that compels conclusions in cases. It's the law.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Jobs, Heart, Law

  "Sotomayor says life experience won't bias her rulings" by Craig Gilbert, archive.jsonline.com. July 14, 2009.

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• Once again, the puppets on Capitol Hill are about to slam the Muppets on Main Street. The country still hasn't recovered from the Wall Street-induced financial cataclysm of 2008, yet Congress is preparing to enact the Orwellian 'JOBS Act' - a bill that should in fact be called the 'Return Fraud to Wall Street in One Easy Step Act.'

  Eliot Spitzer

  Country, Jobs, Wall

  "Kill the JOBS Act!" by Eliot Spitzer, www.slate.com. March 19, 2012.

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• The Republican argument that raising the debt ceiling encourages additional future spending is logically irresponsible. The debt ceiling has to be raised to authorize spending already approved by Congress. Despite that fallacy, the GOP has been able to score political points with its argument.

  Eliot Spitzer

  Political, Ceilings, Debt

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• [P]olitical and social and scientific values ... should be correlated in some relation of movement that could be expressed in mathematics, nor did one care in the least that all the world said it could not be done, or that one knew not enough mathematics even to figure a formula beyond the schoolboy s=(1/2)gt2. If Kepler and Newton could take liberties with the sun and moon, an obscure person ... could take liberties with Congress, and venture to multiply its attraction into the square of its time. He had only to find a value, even infinitesimal, for its attraction.

  Henry Adams

  Science, Moon, Squares

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• I repeat the declaration made a year ago, that 'while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the Acts of Congress.' If the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an Executive duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to perform it.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Mean, Years, People

  Abraham Lincoln (1989). “Abraham Lincoln: Speeches & Writings Part 2: 1859-1865: Library of America #46”, p.661, Library of America

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• American citizens are instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved Africans, equally in violation of the laws of humanity and in defiance of those of their own country. The same just and benevolent motives which produced interdiction in force against this criminal conduct will doubtless be felt by Congress in devising further means of suppressing the evil.

  James Madison

  Country, Mean, Law

  James Madison, Robert Allen Rutland (1996). “The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series”

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• Congress shall have Power . . . to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Time to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

  James Madison

  Education, Art, Writing

  Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2017). “The Origin of the Nation: Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights and Other Amendments, Federalist Papers & Common Sense: Creating America - Landmark Documents that Shaped a New Nation”, p.508, Madison & Adams Press

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• The establishment of the chaplainship to Congress is a palpable violation of ... constitutional principles.

  James Madison

  Religion, Atheism, Principles

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.88, University of Virginia Press

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• That's one of the major lessons: no president should ever take this nation to war without full public debate in the Congress and/or in the public.

  Robert McNamara

  War, Patriotic, President

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• Congress is, after all, not a body of laymen unfamiliar with the commonplaces of our law. This legislation was the formulation of the two Judiciary Committees, all of whom are lawyers, and the Congress is predominately a lawyers' body.

  Felix Frankfurter

  Law, Two, Body

  "Callanan v. United States, 364 U.S. 587". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. January 9, 1961.

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• It is plain that, when it comes to inferior officers, Congress itself can pass a law sending these nominees to the President with him having the authority to put them on the bench without the advice and consent of the Senate.

  John Jay Hooker

  Law, Advice, President

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• The first thing I plan to do is what I did while serving in Arizona’s legislature — and that was to seek out members that I often disagreed with on important issues. It was through our authentic relationships and mutual respect that we found common ground on legislation that helped people. The challenge for Congress is to move past the harsh partisanship that we saw in the last term. This is a critical step in advancing policies that will strengthen and protect LGBT families.

  Kyrsten Sinema

  Moving, Past, Issues

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• Even in Madison’s day, the practice of gerrymandering for partisan advantage was familiar. In the late seventeen-eighties, there were claims that Patrick Henry had tried to gerrymander Madison himself out of the First Congress. The term was coined during Madison’s Presidency, to mock Elbridge Gerry, the governor of Massachusetts, who in 1811 approved an election district that was said to look like a salamander.

  Jeffrey Toobin

  Practice, Looks, Massachusetts

  "Drawing the Line". www.newyorker.com. March 6, 2006.

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• Congress has greatly tightened the loopholes terrorists can use to harm Americans. We need to do more. We need controls immediately on what forms of ID are adequate to board planes and enter secure sites.

  Elton Gallegly

  Boards, Needs, Use

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• My friends in the Congress, I have known Coretta King since I went south during the civil rights movement as a lawyer. She was a vibrant, consistent, totally dedicated partner with her husband.

  John Conyers

  Kings, Husband, Rights

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• Congress no longer declares war or makes budgets. So that's the end of the constitution as a working machine.

  Gore Vidal

  War, Machines, Constitution

  "America First? America Last? America at Last?". Lowell Lecture, Harvard University, April 20, 1992.

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• Community-based policing has now come to mean everything. It's a slogan. It has come to mean so many different things that people who endorse it, such as the Congress of the United States, do not know what they are talking about.

  James Q. Wilson

  Mean, Talking, People

  "No Easy Answers: An Interview with James Q. Wilson". Interview with William D. Eggers and John O'Leary, reason.com. February 1995.

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• If Americans want to see results instead of rhetoric, if taxpayers would like solutions instead of sound bites, and hard work instead of horse trading, I suggest you take a short look, and it won't take much longer, at the accomplishments of this Congress.

  Alcee Hastings

  Horse, Hard Work, Accomplishment

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