Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.
I think cameras ought to be everywhere the reporters are allowed to go. I think, furthermore, reporters and cameras ought to be everywhere that the Constitution says the public can go.
If the choice is between universal health care or fixing our broken immigration system or upholding a 60-vote filibuster rule that is nowhere in the Constitution, I’m going to choose actually making progress for the American people.
Let all Americans sit down and read this great document. Since the Constitution’s ratification, it has been the framework for our great nation.
We have to have a good look at the Constitution. Let’s determine where the shortcomings are. Then we can start talking of clauses.
The basic premise of the Constitution was a separation of powers and a system of checks and balances because man was perceived as a fallen creature and would always yearn for more power.
District of Columbia v. Heller, which recognized an individual right to possess a firearm under the Constitution, is unquestionably the most clearly incorrect decision that the Supreme Court announced during my tenure on the bench.
It is my plan to lead the RSC as a member-driven organization which puts forth positions developed through member participation and dialogue consistent with the RSC’s mission and the U.S. Constitution.
A good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot.
If it doesn’t reach the last poor man, your constitution is wrong.
The right to procreate is not guaranteed, explicitly or implicitly, by the Constitution.
The Constitution was made for ordinary people.
I took an oath to protect the Constitution, and protecting the Constitution means not letting the president bypass the separation of powers.
Conservatives like to insist that their judges are strict constructionists, giving the Constitution and statutes their precise meaning and no more, while judges like Ms. Sotomayor are activists. But there is no magic right way to interpret terms like ‘free speech’ or ‘due process’ – or potato chip.
Political conservatives need to recognize that multicultural politics is converging with leftist politics, and not only on ‘social issues’ like same-sex marriage. Our Constitution is also on the chopping block, and if you don’t see that, you haven’t been paying attention.
I will always vote what I have promised, and always vote the Constitution, as well as I will not vote for one single penny that isn’t paid for, because debt is the monster, debt is what’s going to eat us up and that is why our economy is on the brink.
I have been a firm believer in the federal structure of our country as enshrined in the Constitution.
There are loads of countries that have nice written constitutions like ours. But there aren’t loads of countries where they’re followed.
Every member of the Senate has a constitutional duty to follow the Constitution and to uphold the Constitution.
The frame of mind in the local legislatures seems to be exerted to prevent the federal constitution from having any good effect.
The constitution is the ultimate custodian of social will and its making should be accorded all due diligence.
At times, I feel America is something that I can actually put my arms around, more than a land mass and a Constitution, something far more containable and understandable. I don’t exactly know what it is, but at these times I feel completely woven into it.
Southern Republicans are guided by the Bible. Western Republicans read the Constitution. Seen in historical terms, it’s the difference between a movement descended from George Wallace and one that harks back to Barry Goldwater.
I would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in 2012.
As a matter of traditional and sound constitutional doctrine, an amendment to the Constitution should be the last resort when all other measures have proved inadequate.
I’m the elected sheriff, and I’m going to keep doing what the Constitution says I can do.
When you start messing with the Constitution and what this country was founded on – our baseline is what we call it – it just opens up too many doors.
The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.
The connections I draw between human nature and political systems in my new book, for example, were prefigured in the debates during the Enlightenment and during the framing of the American Constitution.
I am fully persuaded that thousands of our fellow-men might profit equally by a similar course to mine; but, constitutions not being all alike, a different course of treatment may be advisable for the removal of so tormenting an affliction.
Most faults are not in our Constitution, but in ourselves.
I wholeheartedly believe that Andy Biggs is the right man to take up the legacy that Matt Salmon is leaving behind. I have worked with Andy for a number of years, and I have been impressed by his commitment to the Constitution and the principles of conservatism.
The Constitution I uphold and defend is the one I carry in my pocket all the time, the U.S. Constitution. I don’t know what Constitution that other members of Congress uphold, but it’s not this one. I think the only Constitution that Barack Obama upholds is the Soviet constitution, not this one.
Christianity is permitted under China’s constitution, and the government has long supported a network of official Christian churches.
I disagree strongly with the concept of separation of church and state. It was not written into the Constitution.
Drafting a constitution is only the first step. The constitution has to be granted legitimacy by open discussion and a fair, representative referendum.
I sort of thought the framers of the Constitution were talking about the rights of individuals, not corporate entities.
The language of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws did not change between 1896 and 1954, and it would be very hard to say that the obvious facts on which ‘Plessy’ was based had changed.
Outside of the Constitution we have no legal authority more than private citizens, and within it we have only so much as that instrument gives us. This broad principle limits all our functions and applies to all subjects.
The Constitution is worth saving, the rule of law is worth saving, democracy is worth saving, but these things can and will be lost if everyone waits around for someone else.
But you answer, that the Constitution recognizes property in slaves. It would be sufficient, then, to reply, that this constitutional recognition must be void, because it is repugnant to the law of nature and of nations.
Tonight, I want to say to every member of the democratic party, who believes in limited government, in personal opportunity and the united States constitution, and a safe and secure America, come home. To the Reagan Democrats, your party has left you. And the Republican party wants you, we welcome you back.
And truly, when you look at the Constitution and our founding fathers and their writings, the things that made this country great, you might draw those conclusions: That they were conservative. They were fiscally conservative and socially conservative.
The fact that we’re protected under that Constitution in exercising the right of free speech, it’s a wonderful thing. You’ve got to come from somewhere else to realize how valuable it is.
Even though Article IV of the Constitution says that treaties are the ‘supreme law of the land’, in most instances they’re not even law.
We have this historic problem that we have a quarter of our population, the people of Quebec, who have never signed on to the Constitution. That can’t go on forever.
As a result of the World War, this old Germany collapsed. It collapsed in its constitution, in its social order, in its economic structure. Its thinking and feeling changed.
The Court’s primary duty, in short, is not to minimize its role or avoid friction with the political branches, but to try as best it can to get the Constitution right.
More students have a better knowledge of pop culture than of the Constitution.
The capacity of the commonwealth government created under the local constitution to exercise governmental powers in local affairs is like that of local government in the states of the union in regard to non-federal affairs at the local level.
My battles have been against federal actions that exceed the powers our Founders granted to the federal government in the constitution.
I have never seen such extreme partisanship, such bitter partisanship, and such forgetfulness of the fate of our fathers and of the Constitution.
In the Constitution of the American Republic there was a deliberate and very extensive and emphatic division of governmental power for the very purpose of preventing unbridled majority rule.
If we’re picking people to draw out of their own conscience and experience a ‘new’ Constitution, we should not look principally for good lawyers. We should look to people who agree with us. When we are in that mode, you realize we have rendered the Constitution useless.
I’m a believer in the Constitution and in the First Amendment. Not just for raising money but also for freedom of speech.
