Eula Biss Quotes

Our Founding Fathers created the United States Senate for the purpose of protecting the rights of the minority.

The Constitution of the United States is not a suicide pact.

Ultimately, the reason we have a Constitution, the reason we have separation of powers, the reason we have the Fourteenth Amendment is to provide the courts with the opportunity to override the will of the people when the will of the people discriminates against a segment of our society.

Our Constitution framers were men and women with great foresight. They understood the majesty of the rule of law, and of rule by laws.

If the Constitution can be used against one, it can be used against all.

In our system of democracy, our government works on a system of checks and balances. Instead of stripping power from the courts, I believe we should follow the process prescribed in our Constitution - consideration of a Constitutional amendment.

History has shown us that, on extraordinarily rare occasions, it becomes necessary for the federal government to intervene on behalf of individuals whose 14th Amendment rights to legal due process and equal protection may be violated by a state.

The very purpose of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution is to protect minority rights against majority voters. Every court decision that strikes down discriminatory legislation, including past Supreme Court decisions, affirming the fundamental rights to marry the person you love, overrules a majority decision.

Historically, the judicial branch has often been the sole protector of the rights of minority groups against the will of the popular majority.

The Constitution was framed fundamentally as a bulwark against governmental power.

The Constitution lies at the core of our civil religion.

The prohibitions of the Constitution were put in place precisely to prevent majority opinion from ruling certain areas of life.

The Supreme Court is the living voice of the Constitution—that is, of the will of the people expressed in the fundamental law they have enacted. It is ... the conscience of the people.... It is the guarantee of the minority who, when threatened by the impatient vehemence of the majority, can appeal to this permanent law, finding the interpreter and enforcer thereof in a Court set high above the assaults of faction.

The Constitution is a list of things the government may not do.

The Supreme Court has always been the last bastion of the protection of our freedoms.

If there be any who deny its [the Constitutions's] necessity, none can deny its authority.

Our Founders worried a lot about the tyranny of the majority. They designed our form of government to provide a loud voice for minority points of view. They hated the idea of unilateral power. And wanted to force advocates and policy makers, through structure and process, to compromise.

I think the Supreme Court does have the authority, which is not used, to declare a blanket right for all people, all adults.

The Constitution has a good share of deliberately open-ended guarantees, like rights to due process of law, equal protection of the law, and freedom from unreasonable searches.

My touchstone for every question is the Constitution.

The constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances.

The layman's constitutional view is that what he likes is constitutional and that which he doesn't like is unconstitutional.

A constitution, in the American sense of the word, is a written instrument by which the fundamental powers of the government are established, limited, and defined, and by which these powers are distributed among several departments, for their more safe and useful exercise, for the benefit of the body politic.

I would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in 2012.

President Obama seems to understand the Constitution as a 'set of suggestions.'