Political Quotes

From the bench

Judges & Justices

Quotes from judges and justices — opinions, dissents, and remarks on the record.

Current judges & justices

Ketanji Brown Jackson
@ketanjibrownjackson· Jun 20, 2025

Congress plainly protected their right to do so when it crafted Title I. Yet, the Court ignores that right today.

cbsnews.com
Ketanji Brown Jackson
@ketanjibrownjackson· Jun 20, 2025

Disabled Americans who have retired from the workforce simply want to enjoy the fruits of their labor free from discrimination.

cbsnews.com
Ketanji Brown Jackson
@ketanjibrownjackson· Jun 20, 2025

Pure textualism’s refusal to try to understand the text of a statute in the larger context of what Congress sought to achieve turns the interpretive task into a potent weapon for advancing judicial policy preferences.

slate.com
Ketanji Brown Jackson
@ketanjibrownjackson· Jun 20, 2025

This case gives fodder to the unfortunate perception that moneyed interests enjoy an easier road to relief in this court than ordinary citizens.

slate.com
Ketanji Brown Jackson
@ketanjibrownjackson· Jun 19, 2025

The government 'do what it wants to do regardless, rendering constraints of law irrelevant and unleashing devastation in the process.'

msnbc.com
Clarence Thomas
@clarencethomas· Jun 18, 2025

There should be almost no judicial scrutiny of these kinds of laws at all.

slate.com
John Roberts
@johnroberts· Jun 18, 2025

This case carries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy, and propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field.

cnn.com
John Roberts
@johnroberts· Jun 18, 2025

Our role is not ‘to judge the wisdom, fairness, or logic’ of the law before us, but only to ensure that it does not violate the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment.

cnn.com
John Roberts
@johnroberts· Jun 18, 2025

We leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process.

motherjones.com
Samuel Alito
@samuelalito· Jun 18, 2025

Have not been able to show a history of widespread and conspicuous discrimination

msnbc.com
Samuel Alito
@samuelalito· Jun 18, 2025

Transgender people have undoubtedly experienced discrimination

msnbc.com
John Roberts
@johnroberts· Jun 18, 2025

The voices in these debates raise sincere concerns; the implications for all are profound. The Equal Protection Clause does not resolve these disagreements.

truthout.org
Brett Kavanaugh
@brettkavanaugh· Jun 18, 2025

Because neither Texas nor Fasken successfully intervened, they may not obtain judicial review of the commission's licensing decision under the Hobbs Act.

cbsnews.com
Brett Kavanaugh
@brettkavanaugh· Jun 18, 2025

In short, the Hobbs Act affords judicial review to those who were parties before the commission.

cbsnews.com
John Roberts
@johnroberts· Jun 18, 2025

Questions regarding the law’s policy are thus appropriately left to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process.

thenation.com
Clarence Thomas
@clarencethomas· Jun 18, 2025

The ongoing debate over the efficacy of sex-transition treatments for children confirms that medical and regulatory authorities are not of one mind.

cbsnews.com
Clarence Thomas
@clarencethomas· Jun 12, 2025

We have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.

msnbc.com
Brett Kavanaugh
@brettkavanaugh· Jun 12, 2025

You sowed the wind, and now the country will reap the whirlwind.

slate.com
Clarence Thomas
@clarencethomas· Jun 12, 2025

Congress must use clearer language under the Constitution’s spending clause if it wishes to outlaw such unintentional discrimination.

slate.com
John Roberts
@johnroberts· Jun 12, 2025

In imposing a higher bar for discrimination claims based on educational services as compared to other sorts of disability discrimination claims, the chief justice declared, the lower courts bungled the unambiguous directive of the law.

slate.com
John Roberts
@johnroberts· Jun 12, 2025

A vigorous and energetic Executive… for a feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government.

motherjones.com
John Roberts
@johnroberts· Jun 12, 2025

If every member of the executive branch operates according to the president’s will and at the president’s pleasure, then voters know who to blame when something goes wrong.

motherjones.com
Samuel Alito
@samuelalito· Apr 22, 2025

We reject this chilling vision of the power of the state to strip away the critical right of parents to guide the religious development of their children

cbsnews.com
Samuel Alito
@samuelalito· Apr 22, 2025

[W]e hold that the Board's introduction of the 'LGBTQ+-inclusive' storybooks — combined with its decision to withhold notice to parents and to forbid opt outs — substantially interferes with the religious development of their children and…

cbsnews.com