I used to say that the Constitution is not a living document. It's dead, dead, dead. But I've gotten better. I no longer say that. The truth is that the Constitution is not one that morphs. It's an enduring Constitution, not a changing Constitution. That is what I've meant when I've said that the Constitution is dead. Antonin Scalia
Some Similar Quotes
  1. Constitutional democracy, you see, is no romantic notion. It's our defense against ourselves, the one foe who might defeat us. - Bill Moyers
  2. I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves ; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform... - Thomas Jefferson
  3. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor; — let every man remember that to violate the law,... - Abraham Lincoln
  4. [I]n my own case at least I feel my professional need for freedom of speech and expression prejudices me toward a government whose constitution guarantees it. - John Updike
  5. If their social institutions were abhorrent, their unwritten constitution bordered upon the absurd. The absolutist monarchs of the ancient kingdoms of Amara looked with detestation at the Shazarian constitutional monarchy. Yet this was no time to demonstrate loathing of the upstart nation; condescension could wait... - A.H. Septimius
More Quotes By Antonin Scalia
  1. A written constitution is needed to protect values AGAINST prevailing wisdom.
  2. Interior decorating is a rock-hard science compared to psychology practiced by amateurs.
  3. You're looking at me as though I'm weird. My God! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It's in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are...
  4. It is myopic to base sweeping change on the narrow experience of a few years.
  5. This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is ‘actually’ innocent.
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