Being 'at the mercy of legislative majorities' is merely another way of describing the basic American plan: representative democracy.

[The current governing judicial philosophy is:] If you want something passionately enough, it is guaranteed by the Constitution. No need to fiddle around gathering votes from recalcitrant citizens.

The judge's authority derives entirely from the fact that he is applying the law and not his personal values. That is why the American public accepts the decisions of its courts, accepts even decisions that nullify the laws a majority of the electorate or their representatives voted for.

The American press is extraordinarily free and vigorous, as it should be. It should be, not because it is free of inaccuracy, oversimplification and bias, but because the alternative to that freedom is worse than those failings.

Law is vulnerable to the winds of intellectual or moral fashion, which it then validates as the commands of our most basic concept

The Federalist Society has done more for the health of the law than any organization I have witnessed in my career.

It is a ship with a great deal of sail but a very shallow keel.