Justice Rehnquist was friendly and unpretentious. He wore scuffed Hush Puppy shoes. That was my first lesson. Clothes do not make the man. The Justice sported long sideburns and Buddy Holly glasses long after they were fashionable. And he wore loud ties that I am confident were never fashionable. John Roberts Read Quote
There’s a lot of the Midwest and the West in Justice Rehnquist’s approach to constitutional law. And by that I mean a recognition that people know pretty well how to govern themselves, that government that is closest to the people is apt to be more responsive to their legitimate concerns and needs. John Roberts Read Quote
Legislative novelty is not necessarily fatal; there is a first time for everything. John Roberts Read Quote
President Ronald Reagan used to speak of the Soviet constitution, and he noted that it purported to grant wonderful rights of all sorts to people. But those rights were empty promises, because that system did not have an independent judiciary to uphold the rule of law and enforce those rights. John Roberts Read Quote
A justice is not like a law professor, who might say, ‘This is my theory… and this is what I’m going to be faithful to and consistent with,’ and in twenty years will look back and say, ‘I had a consistent theory of the First Amendment as applied to a particular area.’ John Roberts Read Quote
The Affordable Care Act’s requirement that certain individuals pay a financial penalty for not obtaining health insurance may reasonably be characterized as a tax. John Roberts Read Quote
People, for reasons of their own, often fail to do things that would be good for them or good for society. John Roberts Read Quote
A chief justice’s authority is really quite limited, and the dynamic among all the justices is going to affect whether he can accomplish much or not. There is this convention of referring to the Taney Court, the Marshall Court, the Fuller Court, but a chief justice has the same vote that everyone else has. John Roberts Read Quote
People, for reasons of their own, often fail to do things that would be good for them or good for society. Those failures – joined with the similar failures of others – can readily have a substantial effect on interstate commerce. John Roberts Read Quote
There is no better gift a society can give children than the opportunity to grow up safe and free – the chance to pursue whatever dreams they may have. John Roberts Read Quote
