It is difficult to maintain the illusion that we are interpreting a Constitution, rather than inventing one. — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
The court's job is to uphold the Constitution and you don't call that off in times of crisis. Would the framers have… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
The Constitution does not trust judges to make determinations of criminal guilt. — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
Day by day, case by case, the Supreme Court is busy designing a Constitution for a country I do not recognize. — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
The court makes an amazing amount of decisions that ought to be made by the people. — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn't. — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
I do accept that, with - with respect to those vague terms in the Constitution such as equal protection of the laws,… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
As long as judges tinker with the Constitution to 'do what the people want,' instead of what the document actually commands, politicians… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
[The] government has room to scale back individual rights during wartime without violating the Constitution. The Constitution just sets minimums. Most of… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to find out where he has hidden the bomb… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
If we're picking people to draw out of their own conscience and experience a 'new' Constitution, we should not look principally for… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
But I'm not pro death penalty. I - I'm just anti the notion that it is not a matter for democratic choice,… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
If you are sentenced to torture for a crime, yes, that is a cruel punishment. But the mere fact that somebody is… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
My view is regardless of whether you think prohibiting abortion is good or whether you think prohibiting abortion is bad, regardless of… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began:… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
Perhaps sensing the dismal failure of its efforts to show that 'established by the State' means 'established by the State or the… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
Nowhere else in the Constitution does a "right" attributed to "the people" refer to anything other than an individual right. What is… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
What secret knowledge, one must wonder, is breathed into lawyers when they become Justices of this Court that enables them to discern… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
The Court's decision reflects the philosophy that judges should endure whatever interpretive distortions it takes in order to correct a supposed flaw… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
Individuals who have been wronged by unlawful racial discrimination should be made whole; but under our Constitution there can be no such… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
I used to say that the Constitution is not a living document. It's dead, dead, dead. But I've gotten better. I no… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
There is no basis in text, tradition, or even in contemporary practice (if that were enough), for finding in the Constitution a… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
A Bill of Rights that means what the majority wants it to mean is worthless. — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
If you think aficionados of a living Constitution want to bring you flexibility, think again. You think the death penalty is a… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
Rather than rewriting the law under the pretense of interpreting it, the Court should have left it to Congress to decide what… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
The death penalty? Give me a break. It's easy. Abortion? Absolutely easy. Nobody ever thought the constitution prevented restrictions on abortion. Homosexual… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
It is a Constitution that morphs while you look at it like Plasticman… That is contrary to our whole tradition, to in… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
[International law] doesn't show what the Constitution originally meant, and it doesn't show what is fundamentally important to Americans today. It shows… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
With each decision of ours that takes from the People a question properly left to them - with each decision that is… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
If there's anything you absolutely hate, why, it must be unconstitutional. Or, if there's anything you absolutely have to have, it must… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
On this day, when we're celebrating our constitutional heritage, I urge you to be faithful to that heritage - to impose on… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
The Constitution that I interpret and apply is not living, but dead, or as I prefer to call it, enduring. It means,… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
We have laws against torture. The Constitution says nothing whatever about torture. It speaks of punishment; 'cruel and unusual' punishments are forbidden. — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
If you're going to be a good and faithful judge, you have to resign yourself to the fact that you're not always… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
That's the argument of flexibility and it goes something like this: The Constitution is over 200 years old and societies change. It… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
Justice White's conclusion is perhaps correct, if one assumes that the task of a court of law is to plumb the intent… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
We should start calling this law SCOTUScare ... [T]his Court's two decisions on the Act will surely be remembered through the years… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
We do Him [God] honor in our pledge of allegiance, in all our public ceremonies. There's nothing wrong with that. It is… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
What is a moderate interpretation of the text? Halfway between what it really means and what you'd like it to mean? — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
If you think aficionados of a living Constitution want to bring you flexibility, think again. You think the death penalty is a good idea?… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
More importantly, the Court forgets that ours is a government of laws and not of men. That means we are governed by the terms… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
Wringing your hands about states' rights, forget it. They're gone. Basically, the federal government can do whatever it wants. Who's going to protect the… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
If you condemn someone who has committed a crime to be tortured, that would be unconstitutional. — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
Burning the flag is a form of expression. Speech doesn't just mean written words or oral words. It could be semaphore. And burning a… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
Being a good person begins with being a wise person. Then, when you follow your conscience, will you be headed in the right direction. — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
The court's job is to uphold the Constitution and you don't call that off in times of crisis. Would the framers have allowed this… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
We have laws against torture. The Constitution says nothing whatever about torture. It speaks of punishment; 'cruel and unusual' punishments are forbidden. — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ.… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
Many think it not only inevitable but entirely proper that liberty give way to security in times of national crisis--that, at the extremes of… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
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… — Antonin Scalia Copy Share Image
![“[The] government has room to scale back individual rights during wartime without violating the Constitution. The Constitution just sets minimums. Most of the rights that you enjoy go way beyond what the Constitution requires.” quote by Antonin Scalia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c3f/antonin-scalia-2855_constitution_the-government-has-room-to-scale-back-in_2019191.jpg)
![“The Court's decision reflects the philosophy that judges should endure whatever interpretive distortions it takes in order to correct a supposed flaw in the statutory machinery. That philosophy ignores the American people's decision to give Congress '[a]ll legislative Powers' enumerated in the…” quote by Antonin Scalia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/73f/antonin-scalia-2855_congress_the-court-s-decision-reflects-the-philos_386108.jpg)
![“[International law] doesn't show what the Constitution originally meant, and it doesn't show what is fundamentally important to Americans today. It shows what's fundamentally important to somebody else today.” quote by Antonin Scalia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d87/antonin-scalia-2855_constitution_international-law-doesn-t-show-what-the_365225.jpg)
![“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…” quote by Antonin Scalia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/735/antonin-scalia-2855_calling_we-should-start-calling-this-law-scotusc_2485398.jpg)
![“We do Him [God] honor in our pledge of allegiance, in all our public ceremonies. There's nothing wrong with that. It is in the best of American traditions, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise. I think we have to fight that tendency of the secularists to impose it on all of us through the…” quote by Antonin Scalia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/924/antonin-scalia-2855_allegiance_we-do-him-god-honor-in-our-pledge-of-all_953659.jpg)
