Constitution Quotes by Antonin Scalia

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

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

A Bill of Rights that means what the majority wants it to mean is worthless.

— Antonin Scalia

There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the…

— Antonin Scalia

It is difficult to maintain the illusion that we are interpreting a Constitution, rather than inventing one.

— Antonin Scalia

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

The court makes an amazing amount of decisions that ought to be made by the people.

— Antonin Scalia

The Constitution does not trust judges to make determinations of criminal guilt.

— Antonin Scalia

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

[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

With each decision of ours that takes from the People a question properly left to them - with each decision that is…

— Antonin Scalia

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

It is a Constitution that morphs while you look at it like Plasticman… That is contrary to our whole tradition, to in…

— Antonin Scalia

If you think aficionados of a living Constitution want to bring you flexibility, think again. You think the death penalty is a…

— Antonin Scalia

Rather than rewriting the law under the pretense of interpreting it, the Court should have left it to Congress to decide what…

— Antonin Scalia

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

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

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

There is no basis in text, tradition, or even in contemporary practice (if that were enough), for finding in the Constitution a…

— Antonin Scalia

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

Individuals who have been wronged by unlawful racial discrimination should be made whole; but under our Constitution there can be no such…

— Antonin Scalia

Many think it not only inevitable but entirely proper that liberty give way to security in times of national crisis--that, at the…

— Antonin Scalia

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

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

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

— Antonin Scalia

On this day, when we're celebrating our constitutional heritage, I urge you to be faithful to that heritage - to impose on…

— Antonin Scalia

The Constitution that I interpret and apply is not living, but dead, or as I prefer to call it, enduring. It means,…

— Antonin Scalia

We have laws against torture. The Constitution says nothing whatever about torture. It speaks of punishment; 'cruel and unusual' punishments are forbidden.

— Antonin Scalia

Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to find out where he has hidden the bomb…

— Antonin Scalia

As long as judges tinker with the Constitution to 'do what the people want,' instead of what the document actually commands, politicians…

— Antonin Scalia

[The] government has room to scale back individual rights during wartime without violating the Constitution. The Constitution just sets minimums. Most of…

— Antonin Scalia

I do accept that, with - with respect to those vague terms in the Constitution such as equal protection of the laws,…

— Antonin Scalia

My view is regardless of whether you think prohibiting abortion is good or whether you think prohibiting abortion is bad, regardless of…

— Antonin Scalia

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

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

If you are sentenced to torture for a crime, yes, that is a cruel punishment. But the mere fact that somebody is…

— Antonin Scalia

You can't come in smugly and with great self satisfaction and say 'Oh it's torture, and therefore it's no good.' Is it…

— Antonin Scalia

As a general rule, I do not think it appropriate for judges to heap either praise or censure upon a legislative measure…

— Antonin Scalia

Perhaps sensing the dismal failure of its efforts to show that 'established by the State' means 'established by the State or the…

— Antonin Scalia

If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began:…

— Antonin Scalia