Antonin Scalia Quotes

• The principal purpose of stare decisis is to protect reliance interest and further stability in the law.

  Antonin Scalia

  Purpose   Stability   Protect  

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

  4495

• Interior decorating is a rock-hard science compared to psychology practiced by amateurs.

  Antonin Scalia

  Rocks   Psychology   Decorating  

  Antonin Scalia (2012). “Scalia Dissents: Writings of the Supreme Court's Wittiest, Most Outspoken Justice”, p.141, Regnery Publishing

  4595

• Words no longer have meaning if an Exchange that is not established by a State is "established by the State".

  Antonin Scalia

  States   Dissent   Ifs  

  Antonin Scalia (2016). “Scalia's Court: A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents”, p.233, Regnery Publishing

  2234

• Having had the good fortune to serve beside her on both courts, I can attest that her opinions are always thoroughly considered, always carefully crafted and almost always correct (which is to say we sometimes disagree). That much is apparent for all to see. What only her colleagues know is that her suggestions improve the opinions the rest of us write, and that she is a source of collegiality and good judgment in all our work.

  Antonin Scalia

  Writing   Suggestions   Opinion  

  "Ruth Bader Ginsburg" by Antonin Scalia, time.com. April 16, 2015.

  3863

• Many Americans do not want persons who openly engage in homosexual conduct as partners in their business, as scoutmasters for their children, as teachers in their children's schools, or as boarders in their home. They view this as protecting themselves and their families from a lifestyle that they believe to be immoral and destructive.

  Antonin Scalia

  Teacher   Children   Believe  

  Antonin Scalia (2016). “Scalia's Court: A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents”, p.174, Regnery Publishing

  2016

• If we're picking people to draw out of their own conscience and experience a 'new' Constitution, we should not look principally for good lawyers. We should look to people who agree with us. When we are in that mode, you realize we have rendered the Constitution useless.

  Antonin Scalia

  People   Looks   Useless  

  "Scalia Slams 'Living Constitution' Theory", www.foxnews.com. March 14, 2005.

  4981

• There is no basis in text, tradition, or even in contemporary practice (if that were enough), for finding in the Constitution a right to demand judicial consideration of newly discovered evidence of innocence brought forward after conviction. My concern is that in making life easier for ourselves we not appear to make it harder for the lower federal courts, imposing upon them the burden of regularly analyzing newly-discovered-evidence-of-innocence claims in capital cases (in which event such federal claims, it can confidently be predicted, will become routine and even repetitive).

  Antonin Scalia

  Practice   Justice   Demand  

  2587

• Persuade your fellow citizens it's a good idea and pass a law. That's what democracy is all about. It's not about nine superannuated judges who have been there too long, imposing these demands on society.

  Antonin Scalia

  Court Judges   Law   Ideas  

  "Scalia: Women Don’t Have Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination" by Amanda Terkel, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 3, 2011.

  1271

• Campaign promises are - by long democratic tradition - the least binding form of human commitment.

  Antonin Scalia

  Commitment   Long   Promise  

  "Republican Party v. White, 536 U.S. 765". Opinion of the Court, www.law.cornell.edu. June 27, 2002.

  2950

• [If critics of the Pledge of Allegiance persuaded the public it should be changed] then we could eliminate under God from the Pledge of Allegiance, that could be democratically done.

  Antonin Scalia

  Scary   Done   Should  

  1443

• If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder? Can we have it against other things?

  Antonin Scalia

  Feelings   Moral   Murder  

  "Antonin Scalia's 10 most memorable lines" By Gregory Krieg, www.cnn.com. February 13, 2016.

  3540

• In the eyes of government we are just one race here. It is American.

  Antonin Scalia

  Eye   Race   Government  

  Antonin Scalia (2016). “Scalia's Court: A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents”, p.47, Regnery Publishing

  1433

• Individuals who have been wronged by unlawful racial discrimination should be made whole; but under our Constitution there can be no such thing as either a creditor or a debtor race. That concept is alien to the Constitution's focus upon the individual. ...To pursue the concept of racial entitlement - even for the most admirable and benign of purposes - is to reinforce and preserve for future mischief the way of thinking that produced race slavery, race privilege and race hatred. In the eyes of government, we are just one race here. It is American.

  Antonin Scalia

  Eye   Thinking   Race  

  Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Peña, 515 U.S. 200, 239, 1995.

  2251

• It's a long, uphill fight to get back to original orthodoxy. We have two 'originalists' on the Supreme Court. That's something.

  Antonin Scalia

  Fighting   Two   Long  

  "Antonin Scalia Says Constitution Permits Court To ‘Favor Religion Over Non-Religion’" by Shadee Ashtari, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 2, 2014.

  2528

• A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable.

  Antonin Scalia

  Turntables   Bottom   Happens  

  1516

• We should start calling this law SCOTUScare ... [T]his Court's two decisions on the Act will surely be remembered through the years ... And the cases will publish forever the discouraging truth that the Supreme Court of the United States favors some laws over others, and is prepared to do whatever it takes to uphold and assist its favorites.

  Antonin Scalia

  Years   Law   Two  

  268

• The mere possession of monopoly power, and the concomitant charging of monopoly prices, is not only not unlawful, it is an important element of the free-market system. The opportunity to charge monopoly prices - at least for a short period - is what attracts 'business acumen' in the first place; it induces risk taking that produces innovation and economic growth.

  Antonin Scalia

  Opportunity   Monopoly Power   Competition  

  1060

• Who ever thought that intimacy and spirituality [whatever that means] were freedoms? And if intimacy is, one would think Freedom of Intimacy is abridged rather than expanded by marriage. Ask the nearest hippie.

  Antonin Scalia

  Hippie   Mean   Thinking  

  Antonin Scalia (2016). “Scalia's Court: A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents”, p.187, Regnery Publishing

  921

• To many Americans, everything from the Easter morning to the Ascension had to be made up by the groveling enthusiasts as part of their plan to get themselves martyred.

  Antonin Scalia

  Easter   Morning   Scary  

  2467

• Day by day, case by case, the Supreme Court is busy designing a Constitution for a country I do not recognize.

  Antonin Scalia

  Country   Design   Melting  

  1040

• A law can be both economic folly and constitutional.

  Antonin Scalia

  Law   Economic   Folly  

  1860

• To be honest about it, that is the view of Christians taken by modern society. Surely those who adhere to all or most of these traditional Christian beliefs are to be regarded as simpleminded.

  Antonin Scalia

  Christian   Taken   Views  

  1128

• That's the argument of flexibility and it goes something like this: The Constitution is over 200 years old and societies change. It has to change with society, like a living organism, or it will become brittle and break. But you would have to be an idiot to believe that. The Constitution is not a living organism; it is a legal document. It says something and doesn't say other things.

  Antonin Scalia

  Believe   Years   Melting  

  "Scalia Raps 'Living Constitution'". www.cbsnews.com. February 14, 2006.

  3600

• [The Freedom of Information Act is] the Taj Mahal of the Doctrine of Unanticipated Consequences, the Sistine Chapel of Cost-Benefit Analysis Ignored.

  Antonin Scalia

  Cost Benefit Analysis   Taj Mahal   Doctrine  

  851

• Perhaps sensing the dismal failure of its efforts to show that 'established by the State' means 'established by the State or the Federal Government,' the Court tries to palm off the pertinent statutory phrase as "inartful drafting.' This Court, however, has no free-floating power 'to rescue Congress from its drafting errors.'

  Antonin Scalia

  Mean   Errors   Government  

  Antonin Scalia (2016). “Scalia's Court: A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents”, p.239, Regnery Publishing

  548

• It would be gross understatement to say that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is not a model of clarity. It is in many important respects a model of ambiguity or indeed even self-contradiction.

  Antonin Scalia

  Self   Important   Would Be  

  "Bells Lose High Court Ruling" by Joanna Glasner, www.wired.com. January 25, 1999.

  4337

• Under all the usual rules of interpretation, in short, the Government should lose this case. But normal rules of interpretation seem always to yield to the overriding principle of the present Court: The Affordable Care Act must be saved.

  Antonin Scalia

  Yield   Government   Usual  

  Antonin Scalia (2016). “Scalia's Court: A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents”, p.233, Regnery Publishing

  4595

• Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to find out where he has hidden the bomb that is about to blow up Los Angeles is prohibited by the Constitution?

  Antonin Scalia

  Blow   Faces   Bombs  

  "Scalia accepts infliction of pain to get key information". articles.latimes.com. February 13, 2008.

  1747

• If you think aficionados of a living Constitution want to bring you flexibility, think again. You think the death penalty is a good idea? Persuade your fellow citizens to adopt it. You want a right to abortion? Persuade your fellow citizens and enact it. That's flexibility.

  Antonin Scalia

  Thinking   Ideas   Abortion  

  "Scalia Slams 'Living Constitution' Theory". www.foxnews.com. March 14, 2005.

  1948

• I am glad that I am not raising kids today. And I’m rather pessimistic that my grandchildren will enjoy the great society that I’ve enjoyed in my lifetime. I really think it’s coarsened. It’s coarsened in so many ways. One of the things that upsets me about modern society is the coarseness of manners. You can’t go to a movie — or watch a television show for that matter — without hearing the constant use of the F-word — including, you know, ladies using it. People that I know don’t talk like that!

  Antonin Scalia

  Kids   Thinking   Grandchildren  

  3303

You May Also Like:

James H. Billington

David Souter

Stephen Breyer

William J. Brennan

William Rehnquist

Robert Bork

Sonia Sotomayor

John Roberts