Justice Scalia and I served together on the D.C. Circuit. So his votes are not surprising to me. What I like about him is that he’s very funny and very smart.

Laws, like houses, lean on one another.

Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.

Law, without force, is impotent.

The one great principle of English law is to make business for itself.

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.

To know the laws is not to memorize their letter but to grasp their full force and meaning.

More law, less justice.

I’m not really conservative. I’m conservative on certain things. I believe in less government. I believe in fiscal responsibility and all those things that maybe Republicans used to believe in but don’t any more.

Laws should be interpreted in a liberal sense so that their intention may be preserved.

No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.

I hope that a move toward clemency with Judge Afiuni would be a step towards the importance of maintaining a properly functioning justice system.

Just because you’ve seen ‚My Cousin Vinny‘ doesn’t qualify you to be a federal judge.

The right honourable gentleman caught the Whigs bathing, and walked away with their clothes. He has left them in the full enjoyment of their liberal positions, and he is himself a strict conservative of their garments.

The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.

I’m a conservative, but I’m not a nut about it.

Perhaps the most striking assault on the foundations of traditional liberties is a little-known case brought to the Supreme Court by the Obama administration, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project.

Free speech has been used by the Supreme Court to give immense power to the wealthiest members of our society.

A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.

Due process should matter.

A judge sworn to decide impartially can offer no forecasts, no hints, for that would show not only disregard for the specifics of the particular case, it would display disdain for the entire judicial process.

A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.

Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.

Justice is what is established; and thus all our established laws will necessarily be regarded as just without examination, since they are established.

On the whole, we think of our consumers – other judges, lawyers, the public. The law that the Supreme Court establishes is the law that they must live by, so all things considered, it’s better to have it clearer than confusing.

It is a fundamental principle of criminal law that an imputed offense must correspond exactly to the type of crime described by law. If no law applies exactly to the point in question, then there is no offense.

When police or prosecutors conceal significant exculpatory or impeaching material, we hold, it is ordinarily incumbent on the state to set the record straight.

There is no person in this room whose basic rights are not involved in any successful defiance to the carrying out of court orders.

There’s no doubt that the Christian right has gone to bed with the more conservative elements of the Republican Party. And there’s been a melding in their goals when it comes to the separation of church and state. I’ve always believed in the separation of church and state.

The experience I don’t want to see repeated occurred in ‚Bush v. Gore.‘ The Court divided five to four. There were four separate dissents, and that confused the press. In fact, some of the reporters announced that the decision was seven-two. There was no time to get together.

Justice is expensive in America. There are no Free Passes… You might want to remember this, the next time you get careless and blow off a few Parking Tickets. They will come back to haunt you the next time you see a Cop car in your rear-view mirror.

We shouldn’t have to be burdened with all the technicalities that come up from time to time with shrewd, smart lawyers interpreting what the laws or what the Constitution may or may not say.

It’s hard not to have a big year at the Supreme Court.

A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

I always like to take my time and examine the two candidates, see not only the two candidates but the policies they will bring in, the people they will bring in, who they might appoint to the Supreme Court, and look at the whole range of issues before making a decision.

The jury consist of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

I get very little sleep when the court is sitting.

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

You should see what our Founding Fathers used to say to each other and in the early part of our nation. But what they were able to do, especially in Philadelphia in 1787, four months, they argued about what a House should be, what a Senate should be, the power of the president, the Congress, the Supreme Court. And they had to deal with slavery.

The label ‚liberal‘ or ‚conservative,‘ any – every time I hear that, I think of the great Gilbert and Sullivan song from ‚Iolanthe.‘ It goes, ‚Every gal and every boy that’s born alive is either a little liberal or else a little conservative.‘ What do those labels mean? It depends on whose ox is being gored.

How accurately can the law fix the crime? There has to be a mechanism for very fast action. The law is like this: catch them and punish them.

A conservative is a man who is too cowardly to fight and too fat to run.

The Republican Party has become overwhelmingly so extreme that it’s hardly a traditional political party anymore.

I have considered voting Conservative because I am so against the Labour party.

When you’re a pop star, it’s a little conservative; you always have to stay in a box. You have fans that are five and fans that are 65; there are so many people wanting so many things.

The 14th Amendment was recognized right away to be problematic. The concept of person was both too narrow and too broad, and the courts went to work to overcome both of those flaws.

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.

Nobody is above the law. Imagine if there allegations against Modi and he is the Prime Minister. Should the case not be pursued just because he has become the PM. It should not be so that it should be stopped. I am not above the law.

You’re innocent until proven guilty.

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.

All great peoples are conservative.

Law is mind without reason.

Most states in the union where the death penalty is theoretically on the books don’t have executions.

I do hope that some of my dissents will one day be the law.

I think most defense attorneys know, to some extent, their clients are guilty.

The best interpreter of the law is custom.

The place of justice is a hallowed place.

And whether you’re an honest man, or whether you’re a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.

I would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in 2012.