“I’ve chosen not to challenge the rule of law, because in our system there really is no intermediate step between a Supreme Court decision and violent revolution. When the Supreme Court makes a decision, no matter how strongly one disagrees with it, one faces a choice –are we, in John Adams’ phrase, a nation of laws, or is it a contest made on raw power?” MadeMatterFacesLawChoicesNationsChallengesDecisionStepsRevolutionCourtSupremeViolentChosenPhrasesDisagreeSupreme CourtContestsRule Of LawCourt DecisionViolent Revolution Author:Al Gore
“It is important that Miers not be confirmed unless, in her 61st year, she suddenly and unexpectedly is found to have hitherto undisclosed interests and talents pertinent to the court's role. Otherwise the sound principle of substantial deference to a president's choice of judicial nominees will dissolve into a rationalization for senatorial abdication of the duty to hold presidents to some standards of seriousness that will prevent them from reducing the Supreme Court to a private plaything useful for fulfilling whims on behalf of friends.” YearsImportantChoicesFoundSoundPresidentInterestPrinciplesRolesTalentDutyStandardsCourtSupremeFulfillingSupreme CourtBehalfSeriousnessReducingJudicialWhimDeferencePertinentAbdication Author:George Will
“Pro-choice supporters are often heard using the cool language of the courts and the vocabulary of rights. Americans who are deeply ambivalent about abortion often miss the sound of caring.” ChoicesLanguageSoundRightsHeardMissingCourtCaringAbortionSupporterVocabularyAmbivalent Author:Ellen Goodman
“The Supreme Court had the choice not only which way to rule, pro- or anti-gay marriage rights, but also how they were going to rule. They could have ruled just federalism, saying, "This isn't a matter for federal; this isn't a federal issue at all. States should decide it." Or they could decide it on equal protection grounds and say that, "Gay discrimination is wrong."” WayShouldMatterStatesChoicesIssuesRightsGayEqualCourtProtectionSupremeDiscriminationSupreme CourtGay MarriageFederalismAnti GayAll StateEqual Protection Author:Barack Obama
“[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
“Arlen Specter is the man who voted in favor of Bill Clinton during impeachment, voted against Robert Bork for the Supreme Court, voted against school choice for the District of Columbia, endorses an absolutist interpretation of abortion rights. He is bright and he is tough and he belongs elsewhere.” MenSchoolChoicesRightsHe ManToughBillsCourtClintonFavorsSupremeAbortionInterpretationElsewhereSupreme CourtColumbiaImpeachmentAbortion RightsSchool Choice Author:William F. Buckley, Jr.
“The law in the United States, in every jurisdiction until about 1876, was that if a factory put smoke into the air, even one day a year, and it got onto a neighbor's property, the neighbor had the right to enjoin to close down the factory, and the courts had no choice but to do that.” IfsYearsStatesLawChoicesUnitedUnited StatesAirOne DayCourtPropertyNeighborSmokeFactoriesJurisdiction Author:Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.