If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began: 'The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity,' I would hide my head in a bag. The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie.
Antonin ScaliaThis is an execution, not surgery. Where does that come from, that you must find the method of execution that causes the least pain?
Antonin ScaliaOne can be sophisticated and believe in God. Reason and intellect are not to be laid aside where matters of religion are concerned.
Antonin ScaliaDay by day, case by case, the Supreme Court is busy designing a Constitution for a country I do not recognize.
Antonin ScaliaThere is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all.
Antonin Scalia