John Paul Stevens Quotes

Finally, a good prosecutor knows that her job is to enforce the law without fear or favor. Likewise, a Supreme Court Justice must interpret the laws without fear or favor.

We will soon know whether the Supreme Court choose the President of the United States or the people of Florida chose the President.

My concern was whether I could do the job of a justice well enough to convince the nation that my appointment was the right move.

The United States and the European Union do want to have a rule of law, and that rule of law should be for a fair trial. And that fair trial needs to have an impartial jury.

Election victories increasingly depend on factors other than who votes, or tries to vote, and for whom. In 2000, the presidency was awarded by the Supreme Court, pre-empting the count of thousands of Florida votes.

The state of law is equal for all people. It cannot depend on electoral politics.

In any election, it's important that the public perceive that the election is held fairly.

A judge can't have any preferred outcome in any particular case. The judge's only obligation - and it's a solemn obligation - is to the rule of law.

The Supreme Court needs jurists, not politicians.

The public must be assured that prosecutorial decisions are made on legal and not political grounds.

No one is above the law; no one is beneath the law…. No person in America is above the law and that includes the President and the Supreme Court…. Neither the President or anybody else can override a law that is Constitutional.

Ultimately, the best guarantor of the rule of law is not the state and the branches which comprise it but the recognition by people of its value and their willingness to fight for, and uphold it.

Justice has to be done, justice must be seen to be done

We do not sit like a kadi under a tree dispensing justice according to considerations of individual expediency

The law itself is on trial in every case as well as the cause before it.

Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.

China has not established the rule of law and thus there is no justice.

Justice must be seen to be done.

I have faith in the judicial system.

If everyone on the Court always voted for the prosecution against the defendant, for the corporation against the plaintiffs, and for the government against the condemned, a vital spark of American democracy would be extinguished.

We've got an outstanding justice system. Our judiciary are respected around the world. It is a key part of what we are as a country. It's an area where there is a strong political consensus behind that and perhaps in an era of populism it's important that we preserve those qualities.

No one is above the law, not even the President.

Were I confirmed as a judge, I would decide cases according to the rule of law beginning to end.

This is what happens, when, for the first time in modern history, a candidate resorts to lawsuits to try to overturn the outcome of an election for president.

We are not in the regime of Aurangzeb. We are in the regime of rule of law. When rule of law is concerned, it applies to government, it applies to Supreme Court, it applies to everybody.