William Rehnquist citáty

William Hubbs Rehnquist bol americký sudca, ktorý pôsobil na Najvyššom súde USA od roku 1972 do roku 1986 ako člen , potom od roku 1986 ako predseda až do smrti v roku 2005, keď osemdesiatročný sudca podľahol rakovine štítnej žľazy.

Rehnquist patril medzi konzervatívnych sudcov. Presadzoval okrem iného aj zachovanie trestu smrti a zastával takzvaný „pro-life“ postoj k umelému prerušeniu tehotenstva. Rehnquist presadzoval prípustnosť náboženstva vo verejnom priestore; a väčšiu právomoc štátov Únie proti centralizácii moci na federálnu úroveň. Wikipedia  

✵ 1. október 1924 – 3. september 2005
William Rehnquist fotka
William Rehnquist: 32   citátov 0   Páči sa

William Rehnquist: Citáty v angličtine

“An oft-heard description of the Supreme Court is that it is the ultimate protector in our society of the liberties of the individual. This phrase describes an important role of the Supreme Court, but by ignoring other equally important functions of the Court, it has a potential for mischief.”

The Supreme Court: How it Was, How it Is (1987).
Books, articles, and speeches
Kontext: An oft-heard description of the Supreme Court is that it is the ultimate protector in our society of the liberties of the individual. This phrase describes an important role of the Supreme Court, but by ignoring other equally important functions of the Court, it has a potential for mischief. It is a fairly short leap from this language to a feeling that the US Constitution is somehow "vindicated" every time a claim of individual right against government is upheld, and is not vindicated whenever such a claim is not upheld. But this, of course, cannot be the case. The role of the Supreme Court is to uphold those claims of individual liberty that it finds are well-founded in the Constitution, and to reject other claims against the government that it concludes are not well-founded. Its role is no more to exclusively uphold the claims of the individual than it is to exclusively uphold the claims of the government: It must hold the constitutional balance true between these claims.

“It is about time the Court faced the fact that the white people in the South don't like the colored people;”

Memo written to , as cited in "The Partisan" http://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/03/magazine/the-partisan.html, in the New York Times, March 3, 1985
Judicial opinions
Kontext: It is about time the Court faced the fact that the white people in the South don't like the colored people; the Constitution restrains them from effecting this dislike through state action, but it most assuredly did not appoint the Court as a sociological watchdog to rear up every time private discrimination raises its admittedly ugly head. To the extent that this decision advances the frontier of state action and 'social gain,' it pushes back the frontier of freedom of association and majority rule.

“This result [… ] will daily stand as a veritable sword of Damocles over every succeeding president and his advisers.”

Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S. 425 (1977) (dissent); the court ruled 7–2 that Congress could seize Richard Nixon’s presidential papers.
Judicial opinions

“The role of the Supreme Court is to uphold those claims of individual liberty that it finds are well-founded in the Constitution, and to reject other claims against the government that it concludes are not well-founded. Its role is no more to exclusively uphold the claims of the individual than it is to exclusively uphold the claims of the government: It must hold the constitutional balance true between these claims.”

The Supreme Court: How it Was, How it Is (1987).
Books, articles, and speeches
Kontext: An oft-heard description of the Supreme Court is that it is the ultimate protector in our society of the liberties of the individual. This phrase describes an important role of the Supreme Court, but by ignoring other equally important functions of the Court, it has a potential for mischief. It is a fairly short leap from this language to a feeling that the US Constitution is somehow "vindicated" every time a claim of individual right against government is upheld, and is not vindicated whenever such a claim is not upheld. But this, of course, cannot be the case. The role of the Supreme Court is to uphold those claims of individual liberty that it finds are well-founded in the Constitution, and to reject other claims against the government that it concludes are not well-founded. Its role is no more to exclusively uphold the claims of the individual than it is to exclusively uphold the claims of the government: It must hold the constitutional balance true between these claims.

“Actually, the Swedish genealogists were so good that I found out more than I wanted to about my Swedish ancestors: one of them in the 17th century was executed for having embezzled funds from an estate for which he was the steward.”

Address http://www.supremecourtus.gov/publicinfo/speeches/sp_04-09-01.html at a Swedish Colonial Society luncheon in Philadelphia (9 April 2001).
Books, articles, and speeches

“The considered professional judgment of the Air Force is that the traditional outfitting of personnel in standardized uniforms encourages the subordination of personal preferences and identities in favor of the overall group mission.”

Goldman v. Weinberger, 475 U.S. 503 (1986) (majority opinion); the ruling upheld the military's prohibition of a Jewish officer from wearing a yarmulke indoors while in uniform.
Judicial opinions

“I want to put to rest the speculation and unfounded rumors of my imminent retirement… I am not about to announce my retirement. I will continue to perform my duties as chief justice as long as my health permits.”

Written statement reacting to speculation that he might retire from the US Supreme Court after Sandra Day O'Connor declared that she would. (July 2005).
Books, articles, and speeches

“Somewhere "out there," beyond the walls of the courthouse, run currents and tides of public opinion which lap at the courtroom door.”

Address at Suffolk University Law School; quoted in The New York Times (17 April 1986).
Books, articles, and speeches

“If you could say of any one individual that the court as an institution is the length and shadow of that individual, surely it would be John Marshall.”

Booknotes http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/index_print.asp?ProgramID=1107 television interview (July 5, 1992)

“It is, I believe, impossible to justify the sacrifice of even a portion of our historic individual freedom for a purpose such as [giving blacks, Latinos and Jews the right to be served in local motels, hotels and restaurants].”

Letter to the Phoenix, Arizona city council, as cited in The Rehnquist Court : Bill Rehnquist Was Once Considered An Extremist. Now His Views Almost Always Become The Law Of The Land. http://articles.latimes.com/1991-09-29/magazine/tm-4832_1_rehnquist-court/4, by David G. Savage, in the LA Times, September 29 1991

“A public library does not acquire Internet terminals in order to create a public forum for Web publishers to express themselves, any more than it collects books in order to provide a public forum for the authors of books to speak.”

United States v. American Library Association, 539 U.S. 194 (2003) (plurality opinion); the case concerned whether Congress could require libraries receiving Federal subsidies for Internet connectivity to install filtering software.
Judicial opinions

“A judge who is a 'strict constructionist' in constitutional matters will generally not be favorably inclined toward claims of either criminal defendants or civil rights plaintiffs—the latter two groups having been the principal beneficiaries of the Supreme Court's 'broad constructionist' reading of the Constitution.”

As quoted in The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment That Redefined the Supreme Court (2001) by John Dean; quoted in an article http://slate.msn.com/id/117140/ at Slate.
Books, articles, and speeches

“The Constitution requires that Congress treat similarly situated persons similarly, not that it engage in gestures of superficial equality.”

Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 at 80 (1981) (majority opinion); this ruling upheld a military draft for males only.
Judicial opinions

“Pregnancy is of course confined to women, but it is in other ways significantly different from the typical covered disease or disability.”

General Electric Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125 (1976) (majority opinion); the ruling allowed GE's employee disability insurance plan to exclude conditions arising from pregnancy.
Judicial opinions