Jonathan Turley Quotes

The Constitution is not just a legal argument. It is a set of norms and practices and it’s a political document…

The Founding Fathers gladly sacrificed government that could provide speedy, effective, cohesive, and internally consistent policies. They opted for one that had a maximum number of veto points and checks and balances and protections against tyranny by particular officials or tyranny by selfish majorities.

The federal constitution is perhaps the greatest of human experiments.

The Constitution reminds us that the government that produces free people is one of divided power.

The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and peace.

Although the original Constitutional Convention met behind closed doors, the founders immediately published every document associated with the drafting of the Constitution, revealed the names of everyone who had been involved in its creation, and kept nothing secret, including the minutes of the debate over its provision.

The American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.

Separation of powers was designed to affix responsibility, not to evade it.

In our system of democracy, our government works on a system of checks and balances. Instead of stripping power from the courts, I believe we should follow the process prescribed in our Constitution - consideration of a Constitutional amendment.

It is the genius of our Constitution that under its shelter of enduring institutions and rooted principles there is ample room for the rich fertility of American political invention.

The combination of Federalism and Republicanism which formed the substance of the system, did not constitute a progressive and formative political principle, but it pointed in the direction of a constructive formula.

The Constitution lies at the core of our civil religion.

I am persuaded no Constitution was ever before so well calculated as ours for extensive empire and self-government.

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

The Constitution of the United States [is] the result of the collected wisdom of our country.

Your [the American] constitution is all sail and no anchor.

If the debates had been public, no constitution would have ever been adopted.

The Constitution was formed for our whole country

The founding fathers hated two things, one was monarchy and the other was, democracy, they gave us a constitution that saw to it we will have neither.

The framers of our Constitution came up with two major contributions to the art of government. The first was the idea of an executive not dependent on the political support of the legislature. The second was the idea of the judiciary independent of the executive and legislative branches.

The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.

The founders designed a government in which it was easier to do nothing than it was to do a great deal all at once.

I strongly believe that the Founding Fathers of our country got it right: power corrupts, and any time you have too much power concentrated in one place, it tends to get abused, so checks and balances are always needed.

The framers hated the tyranny of King George, but they were also afraid of the mob. That's why they put so many checks and balances into our system, to guard against the excesses of a government that might be inflamed by public passion or perverted by a dictator's whim.

I see the government operating the way the founders intended.