Antonin Scalia Quotes

Does the Constitution permit the execution of an innocent person?

We are not supposed to go out and kill all those we suspect to have committed a crime.

The attorney general should be enforcing the law, not policy.

But one way or another, judges perform a very vital function in our society. They have a risky job and they are entitled to security.

The public welfare demands that constitutional cases must be decided according to the terms of the Constitution itself, and not according to judges’ views of fairness, reasonableness, or justice.

Such a trial is not only unlawful but is a gross blunder in policy. It denies the great, fundamental principle, that ours is a government of Law, and that the law is strong enough to rule the people wisely and well.

Law enforcement does not ask an advantage in its struggle with the lawless. It asks only that the scales of justice be balanced. The cause of justice is not served when hardened criminals are allowed to go free through legal technicalities.

The Supreme Court has always been the last bastion of the protection of our freedoms.

We cannot say that we love the rule of law and reject arguments that appeal to the rule of law as technicalities and hair splitting.

The law itself is on trial in every case as well as the cause before it.

The Constitution requires that Congress treat similarly situated persons similarly

The law is sawdust that had already been chewed by a thousand mouths.

Rule of law is based on probable cause.

The issue of prohibiting pardons shouldn't be a political one, but a legal and moral one that relates to the details of the specific case before the court.

I am a pro-law judge.

If the Constitution can be used against one, it can be used against all.

She [Justice sandra Day O'Connor] rejected the [George] Bush administration's claim that it could indefinitely detain a United States citizen. She upheld the fundamental principle of judicial review over the exercise of government power.

The complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly essential in a limited Constitution. By a limited Constitution, I understand one which contains certain specified exceptions to the legislative authority. Limitations of this kind can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing.

With respect to the death penalty, I believe that a majority of the Supreme Court will one day accept that when the state punishes with death, it denies the humanity and dignity of the victim and transgresses the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. That day will be a great day for our country, for it will be a great day for our Constitution.

The EPA must be forbidden to seize or destroy the property of any person until and unless such person has been found guilty of a crime in a court of law.

Cabinet resolutions approving mass releases of terrorists deal a mortal blow to the status of Israel's judges and courts.

I'm a straight shooter: I'll stand with the people of Montana and President Trump to support Kavanaugh's nomination because there is no doubt that he will defend our Constitution and protect our Montana way of life.

In a system of precedent, the new majority bears the weight of explaining why the constitutional vision of their predecessors was flawed and of making the case as to why theirs better captures the meaning of our fundamental law.

President Trump continued his strong commitment to nominating conservative judges to the bench who respect the rule of law with his selection of Holly Brady for the U.S. District Court for Northern Indiana.

When courts rule in our country, we have them as the final arbiter on matters in which we might not agree on. And that is an important pillar of our democracy.