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

“We should start calling this law SCOTUScare ... [T]his Court's two decisions on the Act will surely be remembered through the years ... And the cases will publish forever the discouraging truth that the Supreme Court of the United States favors some laws over others, and is prepared to do whatever it takes to uphold and assist its favorites.”

ShouldYearsTwoStatesLawDecisionUnitedCasesUnited StatesForeverCallingCourtPreparedFavorsSupremeRememberedSupreme CourtPublishDissentDiscouragingWhatever It TakesThrough The Years
Author:Antonin Scalia
Create image

“Under all the usual rules of interpretation, in short, the Government should lose this case. But normal rules of interpretation seem always to yield to the overriding principle of the present Court: The Affordable Care Act must be saved.”

ShouldSeemsGovernmentCareLosesPrinciplesCasesNormalCourtSavedInterpretationYieldUsualDissentMeltingAffordableAffordable Care ActCourt Justice
Book:Scalia's Court: A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents
Create image

“The Court's decision reflects the philosophy that judges should endure whatever interpretive distortions it takes in order to correct a supposed flaw in the statutory machinery. That philosophy ignores the American people's decision to give Congress '[a]ll legislative Powers' enumerated in the Constitution. They made Congress, not this Court, responsible for both making laws and mending them.”

PeopleGivingShouldMadePhilosophyLawOrderDecisionJudgingConstitutionResponsibleCourtEndureCongressFlawsMachineryDistortionMending
Author:Antonin Scalia
Create image

“More importantly, the Court forgets that ours is a government of laws and not of men. That means we are governed by the terms of our laws, not by the unenacted will of our lawmakers. 'If Congress enacted into law something different from what it intended, then it should amend the statute to conform to its intent.' In the meantime, this Court 'has no roving license ... to disregard clear language simply on the view that ... Congress 'must have intended' something broader.”

IfsMenShouldMeanDifferentGovernmentLawLanguageTermForgetViewsClearCourtCongressConformLicenseDisregardStatutesLawmakersRoving
Author:Antonin Scalia
Create image

“Individuals who have been wronged by unlawful racial discrimination should be made whole; but under our Constitution there can be no such thing as either a creditor or a debtor race. That concept is alien to the Constitution's focus upon the individual. ...To pursue the concept of racial entitlement - even for the most admirable and benign of purposes - is to reinforce and preserve for future mischief the way of thinking that produced race slavery, race privilege and race hatred. In the eyes of government, we are just one race here. It is American.”

ThinkingWayShouldHas BeensMadeWholeGovernmentEyePurposeIndividualRaceFocusConceptsHatredConstitutionSlaveryPrivilegeDiscriminationPursueAliensPreservesJust OneWay Of ThinkingEntitlementMischiefAdmirableBenignRacial DiscriminationWrongedCreditorsDebtorsUnlawful
Author:Antonin Scalia
Create image