Pete Sessions: “I think Senator Schumer raises a good point. I never said he opposed the death penalty. What I was trying to point out…”

“I think Senator Schumer raises a good point. I never said he opposed the death penalty. What I was trying to point out is that judges, if they desire to impose their fundamental moral values on people when they don't get elected, can end up doing things like Justice Brennan did, for which, certainly, Mr. Lynch admires him. I have another quote I think is even more clear, a more clear indication of Mr. Lynch's willingness to utilize personal opinions-- justifying judges who want to use personal opinions instead of interpreting the law. He was talking about Justice Brennan. This was in 1997, just a few years ago: Justice Brennan's belief that the Constitution must be given meaning for the present seems to me a simple necessity; his long and untiring labor to articulate the principles of fairness, liberty, and equality found in the Constitution-- Fairness, liberty, and equality sound a little bit like the French Revolution, words they used to chop off a lot of people's heads. Our Constitution is a document of restraint. But: . . . in the way that he believed made most sense today. Justice Brennan's belief that the Constitution must be given: . . . meaning for the present in the way he believed made most sense today seems far more honest and honorable than the pretense that the meaning of those principles can be found in 18th- or 19th-century dictionaries.”