Walter Lippmann Quotes

It is wrong to say that the Constitution will change with the times. It will be, illuminated by the times.

The Constitution is a document that should only be amended with great caution.

I get nervous every time we start tinkering with the Constitution.

It would be a novel and dangerous doctrine that a legislature could change the constitution under which it held its existence.

[There] is an easy and peaceable way of amending any parts of the Constitution which may be found inconvenient in practice.

The (Supreme) Court has shown in the past that the Constitution can also be twisted to frustrate the needs of democracy

We seem to grant less than half a dozen folks in black robes across the street, the right to amend [the Constitution] any time they change their mind.

The American Constitution has changed, is changing, and by the law of its very existence must continue to change, in its substance and practical working even its words remain the same.

The [Supreme] Court did not interpret the Constitution—the court amended it.

The path to an amendment to the Constitution is a thorny one.

I deny that the power of amendment [of the Constitution] carries the power of revolution.

The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their will, and lives only by their will.

What I reject, out of hand, is the idea that by 5 to 4 Supreme Court judges can rewrite the Constitution, but it takes two-thirds of the House and two-thirds of the Senate and three-fourths of the States to equal 5 judges.

I’m incredibly reluctant to amend the Constitution for any purpose.

I used to say that the Constitution is not a living document. It's dead, dead, dead. But I've gotten better. I no longer say that. The truth is that the Constitution is not one that morphs. It's an enduring Constitution, not a changing Constitution. That is what I've meant when I've said that the Constitution is dead.

I believe in an evolving Constitution. A flexible Constitution leaves room for us to consider not merely how the world once was, but how it ought to be.

There is no probability that a vote of two thirds can be commanded for any amendment of the Constitution touching slavery …

If the Constitution, as interpreted by the Court, prevents the proper solution of our social and economic problems, should we do something to the Constitution to meet the difficulty, or should we do something to the Supreme Court?

A constitution … is good for a certain people and for a certain time. It shouldn’t be mummified.

If the people desire changes in the highest judicial tribunal in the land, the people can speak with their power to amend their own Constitution.

Our fundamental instrument of government [the Constitution] is an evolving document.

We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is.

Frequent appeals to the people [to amend the Constitution] would in great measure deprive the government of that veneration which time bestows on everything.

It is a further boast that a regular mode of making proper alterations has been providently inserted into the Constitution itself.

The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it.