Mike DeWine Quotes

After all, our Constitution was intended as a popular document. It was drafted and ratified by the people. It established democratic institutions. It entrusts the people with the power to make the tough decisions. And, in most cases, it prefers the will of the people to the unchecked rule of judges.

A government of laws, not of men.

It is essential to democracy that the elected representatives of the people make the laws that govern this country - and not the judges.

Democracy demands that judges confine themselves to a narrow sphere of influence - that is why the late Alexander Bickel called the judiciary the 'Least Dangerous Branch.' In a world governed by a proper conception of their role, judges don't play at being legislators - they leave that job to our elected representatives.

Whether ours shall be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people.

The will of the people is the best law.

There is a difference between constitutional government and judicial dictatorship, and I think it's time we remembered that our Constitution was not put together in order to establish the sovereignty of the judges, it was framed in order to guarantee the sovereignty of the people.

The public welfare demands that constitutional cases must be decided according to the terms of the Constitution itself, and not according to judges views of fairness, reasonableness, or justice. I have no fear of constitutional amendments properly adopted, but I do fear the rewriting of the Constitution by judges under the guise of interpretation.

When a judge goes beyond [his proper function] and reads entirely new values into the Constitution, values the framers and ratifiers did not put there, he deprives the people of their liberty. That liberty, which the Constitution clearly envisions, is the liberty of the people to set their own social agenda through the process of democracy.

The sanctity of law can be maintained only so long as it is the expression of the will of the people.

What should be targeted is a concept of organic, and not just mechanic, democracy that preserves the rule of law, separation of powers, and that is participatory and pluralistic.

Judges should interpret the law, not make it.

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.

The bedrock of our democracy is the rule of law and that means we have to have an independent judiciary, judges who can make decisions independent of the political winds that are blowing.

The real difference between the United States and other nations lies not in the words of the preamble to the Constitution, but in the fact that the substantive clauses of that Constitution are enforced by individuals independent of and not beholden to the elected branches.

I will, based on the existing ROC constitutional system, based on democratic principles, on the basis of the largest public opinion, promote cross-strait policy.

The courts are under the Constitution, not over it.

Statutes and constitutions do not protect judicial independence -- people do.

The Supreme Court is our ultimate check and balance.

We live in a democracy which can be destroyed if judges function as Platonic guardians.

You have come here by the sovereign will of the people to cooperate with me in carrying out the mandate recently pronounced at the polls.

The Supreme Court has acted as the final barricade against the assaults of democratic majorities.

The touchstone of everything that can be concluded as a law for a people lies in the question whether the people could have imposed such a law on itself.

… courts do not substitute their social and economic beliefs for the judgment of legislative bodies, who are elected to pass laws

Maintaining a liberal activist judiciary is the only means of keeping policymakers out of control of the American people.