Judges should interpret the laws according to what they say, not according to what the judges wish they would say. Judges are supposed to interpret the laws; they are not supposed to make them.
Judges are required by our democratic system not to overstep their positions to become policy makers or super-legislators.
We have judges in the American system and they take on a black robe where they are supposed to shield their partisan preferences. They are not red or blue state judges. They are judges.
During my years as a practicing lawyer, it just was part of your study of what Congress was trying to say in their statutes. I never really considered judges or scholars as either those who used legislative history or those who were opposed to it until after I got on the court.
We must use a judicial, rather than a political, standard to evaluate [a nominee's] fitness for the Supreme Court. That standard must be based on the fundamental principle that judges interpret and apply but do not make law.
Judges are not politicians who can promise things in exchange for support.
I would appoint judges that interpreted the Constitution rather than invented it, understood the difference between being a judge and being a legislator.
Ideological warriors whether from the Left or the Right are bad news for the bench. They tend to make law, not interpret law. And that's not what any of us should want from our judges.
Judges should be in the business of declaring what the law is using the traditional tools of interpretation, rather than pronouncing the law as they might wish it to be in light of their own political views.
One of our Constitution's greatest virtues is that it looks to judges as a source of reasoned, practical, rights-minded decision making.
No matter how badly senators want to know things, judicial nominees are limited in what they may discuss. That limitation is real, and it comes from the very nature of what judges do.
Judges were not the biggest issue for most voters in Georgia in 2002.
But one way or another, judges perform a very vital function in our society. They have a risky job and they are entitled to security.
