I think whether you are a judge on my court or whether you are a judge on a court of appeals or any court, and lawyers too - and if you're interested in law yourself, you'll be in the same situation - you have a text that isn't clear. If the text is clear, you follow the text. If the text isn't clear, you have to work out what it means. And that requires context.

Independence doesn't mean you decide the way you want.

People have to be educated and they have to stick to it. If people lose that respect, an awful lot is lost

To threaten the institution is to threaten fair administration of justice and protection of liberty.

Every citizen has to figure out what kind of government he or she wants.

You will read in the newspaper more often about federal courts, but the law that affects people, the trials that affect human beings are by and large in the state courts

Judges are appointed often through the political process