Leon Jaworski Quotes

… take the Constitution out of cold storage!

You have a good judicial system in the U.S., as you have learned from the Nixon-Watergate period.

The Supreme Court, of course, has the responsibility of ensuring that our government never oversteps its proper bounds or violates the rights of individuals. But the Court must also recognize the limits on itself and respect the choices made by the American people.

The purpose of a written constitution is to bind up the several branches of government by certain laws, which, when they transgress, their acts shall become nullities; to render unnecessary an appeal to the people, or in other words a rebellion, on every infraction of their rights, on the peril that their acquiescence shall be construed into an intention to surrender those rights.

The constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances.

A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government.

This is a case if the President is permitted to be above the law, then we no longer have a republic.

In a constitutional democracy the moral content of law must be given by the morality of the framer or legislator, never by the morality of the judge.

A federal judge did as he was supposed to do and upheld the Constitution. We should be thankful that we have judiciary that will do that.

The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.

The real difference between the United States and other nations lies not in the words of the preamble to the Constitution, but in the fact that the substantive clauses of that Constitution are enforced by individuals independent of and not beholden to the elected branches.

I believe Watergate shows that the system did work. Particularly the Judiciary and the Congress, and ultimately an independent prosecutor working in the Executive Branch.

The old Court you and I served so long will not be worthy of its traditions if Nixon can twist, turn and fashion If Nixon gets away with that, then Nixon makes the law as he goes along - not the Congress nor the courts.

The Supreme Court is a menace to the welfare of the nation.

The great questions that have troubled the country are about the authority of the magistrates and the liberty of the people.

Unless the courts have the power to review the legislative and executive decisions of the nation, we do not have the rule of law… If we don’t follow our own rules, our own Constitution, then, my God, what are we fighting for?

The Constitution is a list of things the government may not do.

The Supreme Court has acted as the final barricade against the assaults of democratic majorities.

Can it be pretended that it is any longer the government of the U.S., any government of Constitution and laws, wherein a General, or President, may make permanent rules of property by proclamation?

We believe that all legislative assemblies should confine themselves to constitutional principles; and that all such laws should be implicitly obeyed by every American.

If the authority which the Constitution has confided to the judiciary department ... may ... be usurped by the military power, at its discretion, the people of the United States are no longer living under a government of laws, but every citizen holds life, liberty, and property at the will and pleasure of the army officer in whose military district he may happen to be found.

We are a government of laws, not a government of rationalizations.

The President cannot refuse to enforce a law simply because he does not like it.

Ultimately, the reason we have a Constitution, the reason we have separation of powers, the reason we have the Fourteenth Amendment is to provide the courts with the opportunity to override the will of the people when the will of the people discriminates against a segment of our society.

If the president is allowed to govern by executive action, then the rule of law greatly suffers.