Supreme Court Justice Quotes - Page 2

• Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia should be commended for acknowledging that his views are so strong that - should the Pledge case reach the Supreme Court - he wouldn't be able to maintain the requisite impartiality.

  Michael Newdow

  Strong, Views, Justice

  6 Copy quote

• Since Vice President Al Gore is constantly making things up, it should come as no surprise that he wants Supreme Court justices who will do the same. As Gore put it, he will appoint judges who view the Constitution as a 'document that grows'.

  Ann Coulter

  Views, Justice, Judging

  4 Copy quote

• Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Law Courts, Government, Libertarian Party

  Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928)

  48 Copy quote

  Show source

• If torture is going to be administered as a last resort in the ticking-bomb case, to save enormous numbers of lives, it ought to be done openly, with accountability, with approval by the president of the United States or by a Supreme Court justice.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Numbers, Justice, Accountability

  "Dershowitz: Torture could be justified". Interview with Wolf Blitzer, edition.cnn.com. March 4, 2003.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We became a congresswoman, a stay-at-home mom, a filmmaker, and a journalist. And Lino and I taught our children that they could rise to even greater heights. They could become surgeons, CEOs, supreme court justices, secretary of state, and even president of the United States. We didn't teach our daughters that they were second-class citizens.

  Diana DeGette

  Mom, Daughter, Badass

  7 Copy quote

• I do think that being the second [female Supreme Court Justice] is wonderful, because it is a sign that being a woman in a place of importance is no longer extraordinary.

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  Women, Thinking, Justice

  12 Copy quote

• The makers of our Constitution . . . conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Men, Law Courts, Rights

  Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928) See Brandeis 1

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Life, Law, Logic

  The Common Law Lecture 1 (1881).

  70 Copy quote

  Show source

• Any successful nominee should possess both the temperament to interpret the law and the wisdom to do so fairly. The next Supreme Court Justice should have a record of protecting individual rights and a strong willingness to put aside any political agenda.

  Bennie Thompson

  Wisdom, Strong, Successful

  7 Copy quote

• Our lawyers had their chat with the Supreme Court Justice, and promised to repast the chat to other members of the Supreme Court to find out whether they wanted to hear us out.

  Dashiell Hammett

  Justice, Lawyer, Court

  7 Copy quote

• My take is that there's two ways to approach history. You sit in your armchair and you watch it on the news and you return to your PlayStation. Or you get out in the streets and you make it. Like, when those Supreme Court justices, you know, legalize desegregation, it wasn't due to their infinite wisdom. It's because people whose names you do not read about in history books, people whose faces you will never see, were the ones who struggled and sacrificed, sometimes gave their lives, to make this country a more equal one. When, it's like those people don't make history, it's us.

  Tom Morello

  Country, Book, People

  "Tom Morello Leads The Occupy 'Guitarmy'". Interview with Diane Sweet, crooksandliars.com. May 22, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began: 'The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity,' I would hide my head in a bag. The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie.

  Antonin Scalia

  Rights, Fortune Cookie, Gay Marriage

  "This Scalia Zinger Is the Funniest Footnote to Come Out of the Supreme Court This Term" by Shane Ferro, www.businessinsider.com. June 26, 2015.

  67 Copy quote

  Show source

• We do need to rethink privacy. I think we need to fall back on (former Supreme Court Justice) Felix Frankfurter's definition of privacy which is, "Privacy is the right to be left alone."

  Paul Saffo

  Fall, Thinking, Justice

  Source: www.sfgate.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Persuade your fellow citizens it's a good idea and pass a law. That's what democracy is all about. It's not about nine superannuated judges who have been there too long, imposing these demands on society.

  Antonin Scalia

  Court Judges, Law, Ideas

  "Scalia: Women Don’t Have Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination" by Amanda Terkel, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 3, 2011.

  364 Copy quote

  Show source

• I never pursued anything but acting. But as a kid, I was really interested in the Supreme Court. I wanted to to be a Supreme Court justice, but didn't want to be a lawyer. I just wanted to go straight to being a justice.

  Gillian Jacobs

  Kids, Justice, Acting

  4 Copy quote

• I am not a conservative but I have spoken out for years against the staggering amount blind hatred directed at black conservatives by liberals. Liberals are shockingly quick to demean and dismiss brilliant black people like Rice, Carson, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), Professor Walter E. Williams and economist Thomas Sowell because they don't fit into the role they have carved out for a black person in America. Black Americans must be obedient liberals on all things or risk being called a race traitor or an Uncle Tom.

  Juan Williams

  Education, Uncles, America

  "Rutgers rage against Rice -- why do liberals have so much hate for black conservatives?" by Juan Williams, www.foxnews.com. March 9, 2014.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• What Mr. Obama wants in a nominee isn't really 'empathy' and 'understanding.' He wants a liberal, activist Supreme Court justice.

  Karl Rove

  Justice, Empathy, Understanding

  "Republicans and Obama's Court Nominees" by Karl Rove, www.wsj.com. May 7, 2009.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's quite a stark contrast between the candidates, in how they will change things for women. Hillary Clinton wants to appoint Supreme Court Justices who will protect Roe v Wade. [Donald] Trump wants to punish women for getting abortions and defund Planned Parenthood.

  Natalie Portman

  Justice, Abortion, Want

  Source: www.glamour.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• [T]he enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table.... Undoubtedly some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our standing army is the pride of our Nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security, and where gun violence is a serious problem. That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.

  Antonin Scalia

  Pride, Army, Gun

  45 Copy quote

• In the words of Louis Brandeis, the Supreme Court justice, we have a choice between a democracy or vast concentrations of wealth. We have vast concentrations of wealth which has bought its way into our democracy with its political leaders who exemplify the merger of that economic and political elite.

  Jill Stein

  Concentration Of Wealth, Justice, Choices

  "Off Message" with Glenn Thrush, www.politico.com. September 19, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe... that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas-- that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment. As all life is an experiment. Every year if not every day we wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Freedom, Believe, Fighting

  7 Copy quote

• It wouldn't matter if every single President since Washington had been a Bible-toting, evangelical Christian. They weren't, of course, but even if they had been, it still would not change the secular foundation of our republic. Christians like to quote various Presidents or Supreme Court Justices who (quite incorrectly) have referred to our "Christian nation." But what do those quotes prove? I could quote Richard Nixon, but would that prove that ours was intended to be a nation of crooks?

  Judith Hayes

  Christian, Justice, Atheism

  4 Copy quote

• It's our last chance [November 8, 2016]. And that includes Supreme Court justices and Second Amendment. Remember that.

  Donald Trump

  Justice, Second Amendment, Lasts

  Source: time.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I want to appoint Supreme Court justices who understand the way the world really works, who have real-life experience, who have not just been in a big law firm and maybe clerked for a judge and then gotten on the bench, but, you know, maybe they tried some more cases, they actually understand what people are up against.

  Hillary Clinton

  Real, Law, Justice

  "Transcript of the Second Debate". www.nytimes.com. October 10, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The solicitor general is sometimes referred to as the 10th Supreme Court justice - a pretty important position.

  Arlen Specter

  Justice, Important, Sometimes

  4 Copy quote