Quotes by Judge

"It is time... to end the long-standing and unproductive methodological debate over 'originalism' versus 'dynamism' or 'evolution' and focus instead on how, as a substantive matter, we should interpret the Constitution in the twenty-first century, and what it has to say on questions unimaginable to our eighteenth-century Framers."

Diane Wood, American Judge

Time, Constitution, Debate, End

"The only way to create a foundational document that could stand the test of time was to build in enough flexibility that later generations would be able to adapt it to their own needs and uses."

Diane Wood, American Judge

Time, Flexibility, Generations, Needs

"There is no more reason to think that they expected the world to remain static than there is to think that any of us holds a crystal ball. The only way to create a foundational document that could stand the test of time was to build in enough flexibility that later generations would be able to adapt it to their own needs and uses."

Diane Wood, American Judge

Time, Flexibility, Generations, Needs

"Neither James Madison, for whom this lecture is named, nor any of the other Framers of the Constitution, were oblivious, careless, or otherwise unaware of the words they chose for the document and its Bill of Rights."

Diane Wood, American Judge

Constitution, Rights, Words

"We're the only branch of government that explains itself in writing every time it makes a decision."

Byron White, American Judge

Government, Time, Decision, Writing

"Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from the failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so."

Byron White, American Judge

Force, Harm

2

"To exclude all jurors who would be in the slightest way affected by the prospect of the death penalty would be to deprive the defendant of the impartial jury to which he or she is entitled under the law."

Byron White, American Judge

Death, Jury, Law

"The risk of racial prejudice infecting a capital sentencing proceeding is especially serious in light of the complete finality of the death sentence."

Byron White, American Judge

Death, Light, Prejudice, Risk

"The law is constantly based on notions of morality, and if all laws representing essentially moral choices are to be invalidated under the due process clause, the courts will be very busy indeed."

Byron White, American Judge

Morality, Choices, Law, Laws

9

"The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution."

Byron White, American Judge

Design, Constitution, Court, Deals

"The 1st Amendment protects the right to speak, not the right to spend."

Byron White, American Judge

Right,

"Maintaining order in the classrooms has never been easy and it is evident that the school setting requires some easing of the restrictions to which searches by public authorities are ordinarily subject."

Byron White, American Judge

Order, Public, School

"We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Education, Doctrine, Public

1

"You sit up there, and you see the whole gamut of human nature. Even if the case being argued involves only a little fellow and $50, it involves justice. That's what is important."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Nature, Being, Human nature, Justice

"We may not know the whole story in our lifetime."

Earl Warren, American Judge

May,

"Life and liberty can be as much endangered from illegal methods used to convict those thought to be criminals as from the actual criminals themselves."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Life, Thought, Liberty

"The police must obey the law while enforcing the law."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Law, Police

2

"I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Sports, People, Accomplishments, First

"Before this distinguished assembly and the world, the bells today proclaim the joyous tidings of the completion of this quietly soaring tower."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Bells, Completion, Today, World

"Liberty, not communism, is the most contagious force in the world."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Communism, Force, Liberty, World

1

"All provisions of federal, state or local law requiring or permitting discrimination in public education must yield."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Education, Discrimination, Law, Public

"Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile, I caught hell for."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Life, Hell

"I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Opportunity, Reward

"I hate banks. They do nothing positive for anybody except take care of themselves. They're first in with their fees and first out when there's trouble."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Positive, Banks, Care, First

1

"If Nixon is not forced to turn over tapes of his conversations with the ring of men who were conversing on their violations of the law, then liberty will soon be dead in this nation."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Men, Law, Liberty, Nation

"In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Life, Ethics, Law, Sea

6

"Legislatures represent people, not acres or trees."

Earl Warren, American Judge

People, Trees

1

"In mid-life the man wants to see how irresistible he still is to younger women. How they turn their hearts to stone and more or less commit a murder of their marriage I just don't know, but they do."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Marriage, Women, Man, Murder

"It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Justice, Law, Spirit

3

"In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Education, Life, Opportunity, May

"If it is a mistake of the head and not the heart don't worry about it, that's the way we learn."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Mistake, Heart, Worry

"Ben Franklin may have discovered electricity- but it is the man who invented the meter who made the money."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Money, Electricity, Man, May

"To get what you want, STOP doing what isn't working."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Want,

"Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress but they regard the things government does for others as socialism."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Government, People, Progress, Socialism

1

"Prior to any questioning, the person must be warned that he has a right to remain silent, that any statement he does make may be used as evidence against him and that he has a right to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed."

Earl Warren, American Judge

May, Questioning, Right

"The censor's sword pierces deeply into the heart of free expression."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Heart, Expression

"The most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the imperatives of internationalism."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Time, Failure, Nation, Paradox

"The old Court you and I served so long will not be worthy of its traditions if Nixon can twist, turn and fashion If Nixon gets away with that, then Nixon makes the law as he goes along - not the Congress nor the courts."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Congress, Court, Fashion, Law

"There is no requirement that police stop a person who enters a police station and states that he wishes to confess a crime or a person who calls the police to offer a confession because volunteered statements of any kind are not barred by the 5th Amendment."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Confession, Crime, Police, states

"To separate children from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone."

Earl Warren, American Judge

Age, Inferiority, Children, Community

2

"A married woman has the same right to control her own body as does an unmarried woman."

Sol Wachtler, American Judge

Control, Body, Right, Woman

"A marriage license should not be viewed as a license for a husband to forcibly rape his wife with impunity."

Sol Wachtler, American Judge

Marriage, Wife, Husband

"You can, if you wish, think of it like the universe: Each case is a sun, and all the judges, lawyers and administrative personnel represent planets revolving around the case in fixed orbit, never getting closer."

Sol Wachtler, American Judge

Judges, Lawyers, Sun

"In the past, those who had ideas they wished to communicate to the public had the unquestioned right to disseminate those ideas in an open marketplace. called a mall, we should not abridge that right."

Sol Wachtler, American Judge

Ideas, Open, Past, Public

"We cannot lightly allow the perpetrator of a serious crime to go free simply because that person believed his actions were reasonable and necessary to prevent some perceived harm."

Sol Wachtler, American Judge

Action, Actions, Crime, Harm

1

"There is a vast difference - a constitutional difference-between restrictions imposed by the state which prohibit the intellectual commingling of students, and the refusal of individuals to commingle where the state presents no such bar."

Frederick M. Vinson, American Judge

Difference, State, Students

"Wars are not acts of God. They are caused by man, by man-made institutions, by the way in which man has organized his society. What man has made, man can change."

Frederick M. Vinson, American Judge

Change, Society, God, Man

"But what I believe is that if a person's individual rights or right to be a part of our economic system is violated under statute, we aggressively go after it. But we don't issue mandates to businesses that you've got to do this and you've got to do that."

Clarence Thomas, American Judge

Rights,

"Even as someone who's labeled a conservative - I'm a Republican I'm black, I'm heading up this organization in the Reagan administration - I can say that conservatives don't exactly break their necks to tell blacks that they're welcome."

Clarence Thomas, American Judge

Conservative, Republican

"Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot."

Clarence Thomas, American Judge

Education, Manners, Open, Will

Quotes by Judge

​

"The only way to create a foundational document that could stand the test of time was to build in enough flexibility that later generations would be able to adapt it to their own needs and uses."

​

​

"Neither James Madison, for whom this lecture is named, nor any of the other Framers of the Constitution, were oblivious, careless, or otherwise unaware of the words they chose for the document and its Bill of Rights."

​

"We're the only branch of government that explains itself in writing every time it makes a decision."

​

"Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from the failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so."

2

"To exclude all jurors who would be in the slightest way affected by the prospect of the death penalty would be to deprive the defendant of the impartial jury to which he or she is entitled under the law."

​

"The risk of racial prejudice infecting a capital sentencing proceeding is especially serious in light of the complete finality of the death sentence."

​

"The law is constantly based on notions of morality, and if all laws representing essentially moral choices are to be invalidated under the due process clause, the courts will be very busy indeed."

9

"The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution."

​

"The 1st Amendment protects the right to speak, not the right to spend."

​

"Maintaining order in the classrooms has never been easy and it is evident that the school setting requires some easing of the restrictions to which searches by public authorities are ordinarily subject."

​

"We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place."

1

"You sit up there, and you see the whole gamut of human nature. Even if the case being argued involves only a little fellow and $50, it involves justice. That's what is important."

​

"We may not know the whole story in our lifetime."

​

"Life and liberty can be as much endangered from illegal methods used to convict those thought to be criminals as from the actual criminals themselves."

​

"The police must obey the law while enforcing the law."

2

"I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures."

​

"Before this distinguished assembly and the world, the bells today proclaim the joyous tidings of the completion of this quietly soaring tower."

​

"Liberty, not communism, is the most contagious force in the world."

1

"All provisions of federal, state or local law requiring or permitting discrimination in public education must yield."

​

"Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile, I caught hell for."

​

"I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more."

​

"I hate banks. They do nothing positive for anybody except take care of themselves. They're first in with their fees and first out when there's trouble."

1

"If Nixon is not forced to turn over tapes of his conversations with the ring of men who were conversing on their violations of the law, then liberty will soon be dead in this nation."

​

"In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics."

6

"Legislatures represent people, not acres or trees."

1

"In mid-life the man wants to see how irresistible he still is to younger women. How they turn their hearts to stone and more or less commit a murder of their marriage I just don't know, but they do."

​

"It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive."

3

"In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education."

​

"If it is a mistake of the head and not the heart don't worry about it, that's the way we learn."

​

"Ben Franklin may have discovered electricity- but it is the man who invented the meter who made the money."

​

"To get what you want, STOP doing what isn't working."

​

"Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress but they regard the things government does for others as socialism."

1

"Prior to any questioning, the person must be warned that he has a right to remain silent, that any statement he does make may be used as evidence against him and that he has a right to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed."

​

"The censor's sword pierces deeply into the heart of free expression."

​

"The most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the imperatives of internationalism."

​

"The old Court you and I served so long will not be worthy of its traditions if Nixon can twist, turn and fashion If Nixon gets away with that, then Nixon makes the law as he goes along - not the Congress nor the courts."

​

"There is no requirement that police stop a person who enters a police station and states that he wishes to confess a crime or a person who calls the police to offer a confession because volunteered statements of any kind are not barred by the 5th Amendment."

​

"To separate children from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone."

2

"A married woman has the same right to control her own body as does an unmarried woman."