John Roberts Quotes

"There are situations that arise when an executive may determine that that type of action is necessary. That may be challenged,"

"If the Constitution says that the little guy should win, the little guy is going to win in court before me, ... But if the Constitution says that the big guy should win, well, then the big guy is going to win because my obligation is to the Constitution."

"What Daniel Webster termed 'the miracle of our Constitution' is not something that happens every generation,"

"certain humility should characterize the judicial role."

"one of the best litigators in America."

"a judge's judicial work is not influenced...by his sense, sharp or vague, of where justice lies in respect to the great issues of his time."

"He's a man of integrity and fairness and throughout his life he's inspired the respect and loyalty of others."

"I don't think you can read those opinions and say that these are the opinions of an ideologue,"

"What Daniel Webster termed the miracle of our Constitution is not something that happens in every generation, but every generation in its turn must accept the responsibility of supporting and defending the Constitution and bearing true faith and allegiance to it,"

"his elevation to the court would be a shift away from equality."

"I think I'd have to say that I don't have an overarching, uniform philosophy."

"I don't think you can read those opinions and say that these are the opinions of an ideologue. You may think they're not enough. You may think you need more of a sample. That's your judgment. But I think if you looked at what I've done since I took the judicial oath, that should convince you that I'm not an ideologue. And you and I agree that that's not the sort of person we want on the Supreme Court."

"We must evaluate not only his qualifications, but also his ability to keep an open mind, his sensitivity to the concerns of all Americans and their right to equal protection under the laws; not only his intellectual capacity, but his judgment and wisdom; not only his achievements, but his fairness and his courage to stand up to the other branches of government when they infringe on the rights and liberties of our citizens."

"The argument of 'We're bigger' is becoming less credible as the open-source movement takes hold. Using your financial might as the basis for justifying your value proposition is not going to withstand this shift."

"There was no issue about condoning the behavior,"

"The right to privacy is protected under the Constitution in various ways,"

"[Giving away software isn't your typical path for a venture-capital-backed startup. But Roberts & Co., are smack in the middle of the next frontier of the open-source movement: business applications.] No one had funded an open-source application company at that point -- it was all infrastructure, ... We broke a glass ceiling."

"One reason people admire justice Jackson so much is that although he had strong views as attorney general, he recognized when he became a member of the Supreme Court that his job had changed, and he was not the president's lawyer,"

"This was 23 years ago. I was a staff lawyer in the Justice Department. It was the position of the Reagan administration."

"Judges are like umpires. Umpires don't make the rules. They apply them."