Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to find out where he has hidden the bomb that is about to blow up Los Angeles is prohibited by the Constitution? Antonin Scalia More Quotes by Antonin Scalia More Quotes From Antonin Scalia This is so absurd that it has, to my knowledge, never been contemplated. Antonin Scalia absurd The wise do not investigate such silliness. Antonin Scalia silliness scary wise Justice White's conclusion is perhaps correct, if one assumes that the task of a court of law is to plumb the intent of the particular Congress that enacted a particular provision. That methodology is not mine nor, I think, the one that courts have traditionally followed. It is our task, as I see it, not to enter the minds of the Members of Congress - who need have nothing in mind in order for their votes to be both lawful and effective - but rather to give fair and reasonable meaning to the text of the United States Code, adopted by various Congresses at various times. Antonin Scalia law order thinking Certainly one cannot ban cross burning in the sanctity of his bedroom. Antonin Scalia bans bedroom burning It is a Constitution that morphs while you look at it like Plasticman.... That is contrary to our whole tradition, to in God we trust on the coins, to Thanksgiving proclamations, to (Congressional) chaplains, to tax exemption for places of worship, which has always existed in America. Antonin Scalia scary america looks Interior decorating is a rock-hard science compared to psychology practiced by amateurs. Antonin Scalia decorating psychology rocks If you think aficionados of a living Constitution want to bring you flexibility, think again. You think the death penalty is a good idea? Persuade your fellow citizens to adopt it. You want a right to abortion? Persuade your fellow citizens and enact it. That's flexibility. Antonin Scalia abortion ideas thinking Under all the usual rules of interpretation, in short, the Government should lose this case. But normal rules of interpretation seem always to yield to the overriding principle of the present Court: The Affordable Care Act must be saved. Antonin Scalia yield government usual To be honest about it, that is the view of Christians taken by modern society. Surely those who adhere to all or most of these traditional Christian beliefs are to be regarded as simpleminded. Antonin Scalia taken christian views People look at rights as if they were muscles — the more you exercise them, the better they get. Antonin Scalia rights exercise people 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 military exigency, inter arma silent leges. Whatever the general merits of the view that war silences law or modulates its voice, that view has no place in the interpretation and application of a Constitution designed precisely to confront war and, in a manner that accords with democratic principles, to accommodate it. Antonin Scalia military war thinking A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable. Antonin Scalia bottom turntables happens A journalistic purpose could be someone with a Xerox machine in a basement. Antonin Scalia basements machines purpose [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. Antonin Scalia important law today The purpose of the Federalist Society was to bring together young people who had this skepticism about what they were being taught and to let them know that there were others who shared this skepticism. Antonin Scalia purpose together people 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 fighting two long A law can be both economic folly and constitutional. Antonin Scalia economic folly law The Constitution does not trust judges to make determinations of criminal guilt. Antonin Scalia guilt determination judging Rather than rewriting the law under the pretense of interpreting it, the Court should have left it to Congress to decide what to do about the Act's limitation of tax credits to state Exchanges. Antonin Scalia credit should-have law [The Freedom of Information Act is] the Taj Mahal of the Doctrine of Unanticipated Consequences, the Sistine Chapel of Cost-Benefit Analysis Ignored. Antonin Scalia taj-mahal cost-benefit-analysis doctrine
