Governmental Powers Quotes

It was not revolution as men are prone to say. It was a popular expansion of governmental powers beyond all constitutional grants; and nearly all men everywhere hope the President may succeed.

The Constitution is a document that SHOULD be beyond argument.

A Bill of Rights is unnecessary as the fundamental rights of individuals are secured by express provisions in the State Constitutions.

The framers of our Constitution foresaw this state of things and provided for it by declaring the supremacy not only of itself but of the laws made in pursuance of it. The nullity of any act inconsistent with the Constitution is produced by the declaration that the Constitution is supreme law.

You can think of all the things a Congress or a legislature does, and then you kind of overshadow that with the fact that a few people are going to make those decisions.

A constitution cannot possibly enumerate the means by which the powers of government are to be carried into execution.

I do not have, nor do I believe I have seen, a vision capacious and convincing enough to propound as an organizing principle for the next phase in the law of our Constitution.

It may be truly said of every government, as well as of that of the United States, that it has only a right to pass such laws as are necessary and proper to accomplish the objects entrusted to it. For no government has a right to do merely what it pleases

The constitution controls any legislative act repugnant to it.

The capacity of the commonwealth government created under the local constitution to exercise governmental powers in local affairs is like that of local government in the states of the union in regard to non-federal affairs at the local level.

No branch of the law is of more importance to the counsellor, the statesman, or the citizen, than a thorough acquaintance with the Constitution and laws of the Federal Government, as they are administered and as they affect the rights of the people.

No no. Mix them up. I’m tired of States’ rights.

The primary function of a constitution was to mark out the boundaries of governmental powers-hence in England, where there was no constitution , there were no limits (save for the effect of trail by jury) to what the legislature might do.

Of the powers conferred upon the General Government by the Constitution of the United States much the most important are those given to the legislative body.

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.

No government has a legitimate right to do what is not for the welfare of the governed.

It is useless to talk about Constitutional means for a condition of things never contemplated by any constitution.

The broad statement that the federal government can exercise no powers except those specifically enumerated in the Constitution and such implied powers as are necessary and proper to carry into effect the enumerated powers, is categorically true only in respect of our internal affairs.

If there be any who deny its [the Constitutions's] necessity, none can deny its authority.

What right does Congress have to go around making laws just because they deem it necessary?

... one of the most monumental laws in the entire history of American freedom.

The legislature's job is to write law. It's the executive branch's job to interpret law.

Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them, like the arc of the covenant, too sacred to be touched.

It is the function of the President, representing the executive principle, to execute the laws.

If we’re going to do all the things that the Constitution says that legitimately we can do as a country, … we have to be able to have a Congress where people can talk together like our Founding Fathers did.