Quotes on the Supreme Court
 
“For protection against abuses by legislatures, the people must resort to the polls, not the courts.” Morrison Waite
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Ronald Reagan
“Judges are not politicians who can promise to do certain things in exchange for votes.” John Roberts
“Make them intelligent, and they will be vigilant; give them the means of detecting the wrong, and they will apply the remedy.” Daniel Webster
“People have always preferred strong government to weak government, though they certainly have no liking for anything that smacks of intrusive government.” Irving Kristol
“The [Supreme] Court’s authority … rests on sustained public confidence in its moral sanction.” Felix Frankfurter
“The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.” Donald Rumsfeld
“The Constitution is what the judges say it is.” Charles Evans Hughes
“The Constitution that I interpret and apply is not living but dead.” Antonin Scalia
“The cost of freedom is always high – but Americans have always paid it.” John F. Kennedy
“The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad.” James Madison
“The harsh reality is that free speech and good government are conflicting goals.” Robert H. Frank
“The question respecting the extent of the powers actually granted is perpetually arising, and will probably continue to arise, as long as our system shall exist.” John Marshall
“The survival of liberty in our land depends on the success of liberty in other lands.” George W. Bush
“There is scarcely a single question in the USA that does not, sooner or later, become a legal one.” Alexis de Tocqueville
“There will be no whitewash at the White House.” Richard Nixon
“We tortured some folks.” Barack Obama
“When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they will be stunned and they will be angry.” Ron Wyden
“When the legislative and executive powers are united … there can be no liberty.” Baron de Montesquieu
“America did not change on September 11. It only became more itself.” Robert Kagan
“[Wikileaks] will be the 9/11 of world diplomacy.” Franco Frattini
“We have no national memory. Maybe it’s a good thing.” Lillian Hellman