“For the highest exercise of judicial duty is to subordinate one's personal pulls and one's private views to the law of which we are all guaradians - those impersonal convictions that made a society a civilized community, and not the victims of personal rule.” MadeLawCommunityViewsDutyExerciseHighestVictimConvictionCivilizedJudicialSubordinates Author:Felix Frankfurter
“Courts are the mere instruments of the law, and can will nothing. When they are said to exercise a discretion, it is a mere legal discretion, a discretion to be exercised in discerning the course prescribed by law; and, when that is discerned, it is the duty of the Court to follow it. Judicial power is never exericised for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the Judge; always for the purpose of giving effect to the will of the Legislature; or, in other words, to the will of the law.” GivingSaidLawPurposeCoursesEffectsJudgingDutyExerciseInstrumentsCourtMereLegislatureDiscretionJudicialDiscerningJudicial Power Author:John Marshall
“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
“The constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it. It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. This is the very essence of judicial duty.” MeanLawLevelsDutyPleaseOrdinaryEssenceConstitutionSuperiorsDepartmentLegislatureProvincesJudicialParamountUnchangeable Author:John Marshall