Quotessence
Home / Authors / Antonin Scalia
Antonin Scalia

Antonin Scalia Quotes

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Filter quotes by topic

AllConstitutionMeltingCourtIfsLawPeopleStatesCourt JusticeScarySupreme CourtThinkingMeanRightsShouldGovernmentCongressDissentJusticeBelieveJudging

Famous Antonin Scalia Quotes

“[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.”

ThinkingWellsProblemCertainChoicesForceNationsRolesRightsViolenceSecurityPolicySeriousPrideGunStandingArmyPoliceTablesCourtAmendmentsSupreme CourtMeltingSecond AmendmentGun ViolenceConstitutional RightsPolice ForceSupreme Court JusticeCourt JusticePersonal Security
Author:Antonin Scalia
Create image

“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.”

IfsPersonsStatesStoriesCertainUnitedLibertyOpinionUnited StatesRightsIdentityPromiseVoteConstitutionPaidCourtFortuneSupremeRealmsReasoningBagsAphorismMysticalSupreme CourtFifthCookiesGay MarriageDissentMeltingFortune CookieSupreme Court JusticeCourt JusticeCourt Decision
Author:Antonin Scalia
Create image

“It would also be strange to find in the midst of a catalog of the rights of individuals a provision securing to the states the right to maintain a designated "Militia." Dispassionate scholarship suggests quite strongly that the right of the people to keep and bear arms meant just that.”

PeopleStatesIndividualRightsStrangeArmsBearsGunMidstGun ControlProvisionScholarshipMilitiaDispassionate
Book:A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law
Create image