Political Quotes

“But I would like to suggest that I think he proves too much when he refers to this bill as somehow hostile to the vibrancy, the vitality, the importance, the significance of the Federal judiciary. Just the opposite; it is an effort to make the Federal judiciary work better. We will have amendments here, and we will debate this issue, but I do not think there is anything in the bill that is hostile at all to the notion of the third branch of government and its very important role in the functioning of our democracy. As to the three-judge panel, somehow the gentleman from Massachusetts views that as a derogation of authority, proper authority that belongs to the courts. I would just simply suggest that the notion of setting aside by injunction a referendum that has passed through a State process where members of the State have voted in the referendum is a topic of some significance and deserves the gravity of a three-judge court rather than just one judge.”