18 Quotes & Sayings By Cass Sunstein

Cass Sunstein is a professor of law at Harvard University and a former administrator of the US Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He serves as a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and as a member of the American Law Institute. In addition, he is a Senior Fellow at the University of Chicago's School of Law, where he is Director of the Center for Ethics. A graduate of Yale Law School, Sunstein was formerly a law clerk for Judge Richard Posner on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and an associate at the white shoe law firm Covington & Burling Read more

Before joining academia, he was a lawyer with Mayer, Brown & Platt in New York City.

1
Democrats pride themselves on their commitment to science. Citing climate change, they contend that they are the party of truth, while Republicans are 'denialists.' But with respect to genetically modified organisms, many Democrats seem indifferent to science, and to be practicing a denialism of their own - perhaps more so than Republicans. Cass Sunstein
2
If interviewers are prejudiced against women or Hispanics, for example, a face-to-face interview will predictably result in discrimination. Reliance on tests, or on actual or past performance, can promote equality. Cass Sunstein
3
If you have an architecture of control, let's say, where you select in advance everything that's going to affect your life, then you're going to live in a very small world that will have an echo chamber feature... Pandora, which I love, actually feeds into that. Cass Sunstein
4
When it comes to discrimination, Americans pride ourselves on how far we've come. Racial segregation is history. Explicit sex discrimination is banned. Same-sex marriage is the law of the land. But amidst all the progress, the male-female wage gap persists, and it's big. Cass Sunstein
5
Many progressives understand Scalia, and other conservative judges, in crassly political terms - as opponents of affirmative action, abortion, gun control, and campaign finance legislation. But what Scalia cared most about was clear, predictable rules, laid down in advance. Cass Sunstein
6
When President Barack Obama is trying to persuade Americans not to do something, he has a go-to line: 'That's not who we are.' Whether the issue involves discrimination, immigration, torture, criminal violence or health care, he invokes the nation's very identity. Cass Sunstein
7
By their innocence and goodness, by their boundless capacity for forgiveness, and by the sheer power of their faith and hope, children redeem their parents, bringing out their best selves. Cass Sunstein
8
If a major source of the nation's news is personalizing user experiences, people with different points of view will end up in echo chambers of their own design. Facebook didn't create that problem, but it shouldn't aggravate it. Cass Sunstein
9
It's one thing to make financial aid available to students so they can attend college. It's another thing to design forms that students can actually fill out. Cass Sunstein
10
When government programs aren't working, those on the Left tend to support more funding, while those on the Right want to scrap them altogether. It is better to ask whether the problem is complexity and poor design. We can solve those problems - sometimes without spending a penny. Cass Sunstein
11
I think that every state in the union should recognize same-sex marriage. Cass Sunstein
12
Employers, like most people, tend to trust their intuitions. But when employers decide whom to hire, they trust those intuitions far more than they should. Cass Sunstein
13
Humility is of central importance I think it's an underappreciated virtue in the contemporary discussion of law and politics. Cass Sunstein
14
There's an old adage about speakers: You won't remember what they said, but you'll never forget how they made you feel. Trump knows that in his bones. He gives his supporters - and they are growing - a terrific feeling of safety and security, along with a laugh and a smile. Cass Sunstein
15
There's every reason to think that whatever their political leanings, Americans will be highly receptive to numerous reforms designed to improve health, safety, economic security, environmental quality and democratic self-government - at least if those reforms do not eliminate their freedom of choice. Cass Sunstein
16
Catholicism is a wide tent in terms of political and legal positions. We could have nine Catholics on the Supreme Court and a great deal of diversity toward the law. Cass Sunstein
17
The process of getting regulations right is described publicly as far more political than in fact it is. It's essentially a legal and technical enterprise. Cass Sunstein