Political Quotes

“Mr. President, a significant number of Americans believe the Supreme Court is highly politicized. Its approval rating has fallen over the years, not surprisingly. Its approval rating has dropped most drastically in recent years following the President's appointment of Justices Sotomayor and Kagan. There are four Justices who vote in a liberal way in effectively every case the public follows. There are two Justices who stick to the constitutional text and who vote in a consistently conservative way. One Justice votes mostly, but not always, in a conservative way, and one Justice votes sometimes with the conservatives and sometimes with the liberals. All of the liberals were appointed by Democrats, the conservatives and swing Justices were appointed by a Republican President, but in a speech shortly before Justice Scalia's death, Chief Justice Roberts maintained that the public wrongly thinks Justices view themselves as Republicans or as Democrats. Of course, it is irrelevant to the public how the Justices view themselves. What is troubling is that a large segment of the population views the Justices as political. It is appropriate and instructive, then, to ask why the public takes this view and whether that view is warranted. I believe the public's perception is at least sometimes very warranted. The Chief Justice ruled out that this perception has anything to do with what the Justices themselves have done. Instead, he attributes it to the Senate confirmation process.…”