Steven Hatfill Quotes

A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government.

This is a case if the President is permitted to be above the law, then we no longer have a republic.

You have a good judicial system in the U.S., as you have learned from the Nixon-Watergate period.

Hoover was a patriot in his heart, but he definitely exceeded his power.

Our Supreme Court has been very clear that the government can't just simply say something and make it so.

We are a nation of laws.

You can't give the government the power to do good without also giving it the power to do bad - in fact, to do anything it wants.

We want our government to protect us, to make sure something like 9/11 never happens again. We quickly moved to give law enforcement more power to do this. But that now begs the question, did we move to fast? Did we give too much power away? I don't have the answer.

I don't want to hear again from the attorney general or anyone on this floor that this government has shown it can be trusted to use the power we give it with restraint and care.

If the jury have no right to judge of the justice of a law of the government, they plainly can do nothing to protect the people against the oppressions of the government; for there are no oppressions which the government may not authorize by law.

No one is above the law, not even the president. I believe perjury does meet at least the definition of high misdemeanor.

The Supreme Court, of course, has the responsibility of ensuring that our government never oversteps its proper bounds or violates the rights of individuals. But the Court must also recognize the limits on itself and respect the choices made by the American people.

By ensuring that no one in government has too much power, the Constitution helps protect ordinary Americans every day against abuse of power by those in authority.

The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.

Police officials routinely execute search warrants on private homes and offices, and Congressional offices should not be treated any differently. There cannot be one set of rules for elected officials and another set of rules for everyone else.

The Supreme Court is a menace to the welfare of the nation.

We cannot continue to claim that we are a nation of laws and not of men if our laws and, indeed, even the Constitution of the United States itself, may be summarily breached because of some determination of expediency or because the President says “trust me.”

Where the laws are not supreme, there demagogues spring up .... The law ought to be supreme over all.

Such a trial is not only unlawful but is a gross blunder in policy. It denies the great, fundamental principle, that ours is a government of Law, and that the law is strong enough to rule the people wisely and well.

You’ve got to have safeguards [on law enforcement authorities] if we’re going to continue to have the freedom we’ve had for the past 200 years.

Unless the courts have the power to review the legislative and executive decisions of the nation, we do not have the rule of law… If we don’t follow our own rules, our own Constitution, then, my God, what are we fighting for?

Power intoxicates men …. The Supreme Court must be curbed.

The federal government, of course, enjoys a crucial advantage in its ability to evade laws. It owns the prosecutor.

In all questions between a government and an individual the presumption in every Englishman's mind is that the government is in the wrong.

For over 200 years, this nation has adhered to the rule of law with unparalleled success. A shift to a nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill-advised.