“If you've ever been in the West Wing, it's like a little rabbit warren. Everybody's crammed in there on top of each other, and you're eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the mess with people. And so you really get to know each other very well. So, I think they just weren't worried.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWellsLittlesEatingWingsWestDinnerMessWorriedBreakfastLunchRabbitsEating Breakfast Author:Donald Verrilli Jr.
“If people can live openly and be equal, then you have to have a pretty strong reason to say they can't get married.” PeopleIfsReasonStrongEqualMarried Author:Donald Verrilli Jr.
“Watch what happens on Twitter. One thing leads to another very quickly. And in an ironic sense, even though it's such a democratic form of communication, there's a funny way in which it leads to a hardening of a conventional wisdom much more quickly than might happen if you were reflecting on it a little more.” IfsWayLittlesMightHappensFormWatchesOne ThingCommunicationDemocraticIronicConventionalReflectingConventional Wisdom Author:Donald Verrilli Jr.
“I don't think this is a situation where you can say that Congress was avoiding any mention of the tax power. It'd be one thing if Congress explicitly disavowed an exercise of the tax power. But given that it hasn't done so, it seems to me that it's - not only is it fair to read this as an exercise of the tax power, but this court has got an obligation to construe it as an exercise of the tax power if it can be upheld on that basis.” IfsThinkingDoneSeemsGivenSituationOne ThingExerciseTaxesFairsBasesCourtCongressObligationAvoiding Author:Donald Verrilli Jr.
“Justice [Sonia]Sotomayor said, "Let's talk - you want to talk about the tax power."And I got like a 10-minute run on the tax power. And, boy, was I glad I did because I was able to get across this idea that, yes, this is a narrower ground on which you can affirm it. And I think everybody agrees. I think even the dissenting justices ultimately in the case agreed that, if Congress had expressly called it a tax, it would be indisputably constitutional.” IfsThinkingWantSaidIdeasWould BeRunningAbleJusticeBoysCasesMinutesTaxesAgreeCongressGlad Author:Donald Verrilli Jr.
“Sometimes one of the justices, because they're, you know, they're brilliant lawyers themselves, can put the question in a particular way so that, even if you've prepared to talk about the topic, the question is put in such an excruciatingly difficult way that there's just no good way to handle it.” IfsKnowsWaySometimesDifficultJusticeParticularPreparedBrilliantLawyerHandleTopicsGood Way Author:Donald Verrilli Jr.
