Precedent, Precedents Quotes

The earth always belongs to the living.

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

When the rich plunder the poor of his rights, it becomes an example of the poor to plunder the rich of his property, for the rights of the one are as much property to him as wealth is property to the other and the little all is as dear as the much. It is only by setting out on just principles that men are trained to be just to each other; and it will always be found, that when the rich protect the rights of the poor, the poor will protect the property of the rich. But the guarantee, to be effectual, must be parliamentarily reciprocal.

All that is solid melts into air. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify.

The Supreme Court is our ultimate check and balance.

We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is.

Our fundamental instrument of government [the Constitution] is an evolving document.

Judges should interpret the laws according to what they say, not according to what the judges wish they would say. Judges are supposed to interpret the laws; they are not supposed to make them.

A strict constructionist is a judge who favors criminal prosecutors over criminal defendants and civil rights defendants over civil rights plaintiffs.

The state of the land of Israel, the kings and people thereof, in peace and war, is proved figurative and ceremonial, and no pattern nor precedent for any kingdom or civil state in the world to follow.

If a radical devolution of powers was possible, it would have been done before. The assumption of states' rights is gone. There's no support for it in the Supreme Court and there's no support for it in public opinion.

If confirmed to the D.C. Circuit, I would follow Roe v. Wade faithfully and fully. That would be binding precedent of the court. It's been decided by the Supreme Court.

Courts do not make the law.

It is a very real concern and my view is that everything changed on September 11th and the procedure, the policies that were in place prior to September 11th no longer should apply.

One precedent creates another. They soon accumulate and constitute law. What yesterday was fact, today is doctrine.

The Supreme Court overrules, distinguishes, and upholds prior precedents. Sometimes it ignores them. But it does not - cannot - 'defy' them.

I had a very long discussion with Justice Gorsuch in my office, and he pointed out to me that he is a co-author of a whole book on precedent. So, someone who devotes that much time to writing a book on precedent, I think, understands how important a principle that is in our judicial system.

The old order changeth, yielding place to new; And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world..

There are precedents for what happens when societies allow the divide between rich and poor to get so huge that it stops being funny and starts becoming a sick, blood-boiling joke. If you had a Tardis, you could go back to 1917 and ask the Russian royal family how it was all going.

Justice is determined by the personality of the judges.

The [Supreme] Court is no longer primarily a legal institution but rather a political and cultural power.

Had I performed my prayers in the Church of the Resurrection, the Moslems in a future age might have infringed the treaty under color of imitating my example.

A Supreme Court justice must convince at least four colleagues to bind the federal government nationwide, whereas a district court judge issuing a nationwide injunction needn't convince anyone.

A reactionary is fixed on the past and wanting to return to it; a conservative wishes to adapt what is best in the past to the changing circumstances of the present.

Our chief justices have probably had more profound and lasting influence on their times and on the direction of the nation than most presidents.