Scott Pruitt Quotes

The unchanging character of law is the only basis on which continuous action can rest. Without it man would be but as the traveler over endless morasses; the builder on quicksands; the mariner without compass or rudder, driven successively whithersoever changing winds may blow

We want laws to be applied predictably.

It's peaceful for people to know how their lives are going to be, pretty much.

Commitment to the rule of law provides a basic assurance that people can know what to expect whether what they do is popular or unpopular at the time.

Insofar as international law is observed, it provides us with stability and order and with a means of predicting the behavior of those with whom we have reciprocal legal obligations.

We all want certainty.

It is better that the law should be certain than that every judge should speculate upon improvements in it.

… the magistrate should know what law he is to administer, that the subject should know under what law he is to live.

We’ve got to have some certainty here.

A written constitution guides and directs the application of law in a way utterly unlike oral guidance. It reminds us that the certainty and consistency of legal application is essential.

I would never ever knowingly break the law.

I think I'm very consistent, that's the right word.

What has once been settled by a precedent will not be unsettled overnight, for certainty and uniformity are gains not lightly sacrificed. Above all is this true when honest men have shaped their conduct on the faith of the pronouncement.

The principal purpose of stare decisis is to protect reliance interest and further stability in the law.

There is no risk involved.

The older we become, the more certain our future.

The substance of the constitution is preserved. That is a fact.

Justice [Sandra Day] O'Connor has been the critical decisive vote on many issues that go to the heart of who we are as a nation.

Legislation may at times be disobeyed, but never law, for the breaking brings swift punishment of its own.

If there is anything material and we're not reporting it, we'll be breaking the law. We don't break the law.

I have rather a strange objection to talking from the back platform of a train.... It changes too often. It moves around and shifts its ground too often. I like a platform that stays put.

It helps to know there is going to be continuity.

...skepticism can never provide firm ground under a man's feet. And perhaps, after all, we need firm ground.

We recognize that stare decisis embodies an important social policy that represents an element of continuity in law and is rooted in the psychological need to satisfy reasonable expectations.