Interior decorating is a rock-hard science compared to psychology practiced by amateurs.
Antonin ScaliaThe principal purpose of stare decisis is to protect reliance interest and further stability in the law.
Antonin ScaliaThere is no basis in text, tradition, or even in contemporary practice (if that were enough), for finding in the Constitution a right to demand judicial consideration of newly discovered evidence of innocence brought forward after conviction. My concern is that in making life easier for ourselves we not appear to make it harder for the lower federal courts, imposing upon them the burden of regularly analyzing newly-discovered-evidence-of-innocence claims in capital cases (in which event such federal claims, it can confidently be predicted, will become routine and even repetitive).
Antonin ScaliaI am glad that I am not raising kids today. And Iโm rather pessimistic that my grandchildren will enjoy the great society that Iโve enjoyed in my lifetime. I really think itโs coarsened. Itโs coarsened in so many ways. One of the things that upsets me about modern society is the coarseness of manners. You canโt go to a movie โ or watch a television show for that matter โ without hearing the constant use of the F-word โ including, you know, ladies using it. People that I know donโt talk like that!
Antonin ScaliaYou're looking at me as though I'm weird. My god! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the devil! It's in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the devil! Most of mankind has believed in the devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the devil.
Antonin ScaliaMore importantly, the Court forgets that ours is a government of laws and not of men. That means we are governed by the terms of our laws, not by the unenacted will of our lawmakers. 'If Congress enacted into law something different from what it intended, then it should amend the statute to conform to its intent.' In the meantime, this Court 'has no roving license ... to disregard clear language simply on the view that ... Congress 'must have intended' something broader.
Antonin Scalia