Cass Sunstein Quotes (27 Quotes)


    There are some lawyers who think of themselves as basically instruments of whoever their clients are, and they pride themselves on their professional craft.

    We learned at least back then he was quite conservative. He was even a relative conservative in the Reagan Justice Department, which is saying something,

    At the same time, there is a growing pile of tidbits, in Roberts' opinions and in the Reagan-era documents dribbling out of the White House, that indicates he has strongly held and far-right views on major frontsabortion, religion, and executive power. There's ammunition for principled opposition to be mined here. But the key attribute Roberts lacks from the point of view of the legal liberals, at least on the record, is an overarching, burn-the-house-down judicial philosophy. As a result, proponents of judicial restraintan approach to the law that's become as fashionable among liberals as conservativesare eager to embrace him as one of their own. Leftish advocates of restraint celebrate justices who don't reach out beyond the facts of a case to decide more than they need to and who respect existing Supreme Court precedent. They wrinkle their noses at justices who overtly seek to impose a rightward agenda (Antonin Scalia) and are willing to jettison past decisions to do it (Clarence Thomas). Roberts has never declared himself one of the bad guys, Sunstein pointed out hopefully in a recent piece in the New Republic . Instead he has styled himself as deliberate, lawyerly, process-oriented. His opinions on the D. C. Circuit court of appeals avoid broad pronouncements, ... They do not try to reorient the law.

    Why should we be governed by people long dead ... In any case, the group that ratified the Constitution included just a small subset of the society it excluded all women, the vast majority of African Americans, many of those without property, and numerous others who were not permitted to vote.

    People who know him in Washington, D.C., of various ideological stripes, say this is not the type to be a fundamentalist. He is clearly extremely able, and his opinions are real lawyers' opinions.


    My feeling on the Republican side, unfortunately, is they just want to make him look like an American hero who is both the most brilliant person in the world and the nicest person in the world.

    As a matter of history, the Fourteenth Amendment was not understood to ban segregation on the basis of race.

    Catholicism is a wide tent in terms of political and legal positions. We could have nine Catholics on the Supreme Court and a great deal of diversity toward the law.

    He is unquestionably one of the most important figures in the history of American law.

    She doesn't have anything like the qualifications of recent nominees. They were exceptionally qualified, both by their judicial experience and experience before they were on the court. Those three were a whole different league of qualifications.

    On the facts thus far, the president has a decent argument that he acted lawfully. There's also a decent argument that he didn't. But if the president has a decent argument, he can't be impeached for getting it wrong.

    We might have new issues involving information technology for example, or new questions arising out of the war on terror, or new issues arising from natural disasters that can't be anticipated.

    It makes people think the stakes (in a confirmation) are much lower than they are,

    He's one of the most interesting senators of our time. The fact that the right was so concerned about him as head of the Judiciary Committee made many people think he'd be very careful in scrutinizing Bush's appointees. But I guess he has proved unpredictable once again.

    There is no proportional representation requirement in the Equal Protection Clause.

    In a very few cases the majority has referred to foreign decisions in the same way it might refer to a treatise or an academic article. Our sovereignty is not at risk.

    When you think commerce clause, don't think technical and meaningless. Think in what ways can the elected representatives of the people provide protection against serious harm.

    The Court failed to identify a provision of the (Constitution) that the Connecticut law violated. Instead it spoke vaguely of the 'penumbras' and 'emanations' of the Bill of Rights, in language that continues to turn the stomach of fundamentalists (and many others), ... Radicals in Robes.

    As pointed out by Cass Sunstein, the University of Chicago law professor who wrote the 2001 book republic.com, Extremists and hate-filled sites tend to attract likeminded people who, if isolated, could come to their senses. ... tend to become more extremist.

    a simple brain freeze, the sort that all human beings are subject to. On the other hand, it is at least mildly embarrassing to make a mistake of that magnitude.

    Even though he's been in public life a long time, he's got a pretty sparse record. So I wouldn't be sure in any area. I've got hunches, that's all.

    But movement Republicans want to see the court shift in the direction represented by Scalia and Thomas. If I had to guess, the next appointment would not be an extremist. But I would never have guessed Janice Brown.

    Roberts' dissent is a pretty big deal, ... The fact that he was willing to challenge the Endangered Species Act as a brand-new judge, when lots of his Republican colleagues went the other way, indicates that he really wanted to make a statement.

    There is a Republican noise machine that goes on arguing that 'legal activism' is killing us. Liberal judicial activism was decades ago.

    This is a very, very conservative judge who in his dissenting opinions is overwhelmingly likely to be more conservative than the majority.

    When some Republicans said that ideology didn't matter, they really meant that Democrats and liberals should shut up. Now that the president has chosen someone whose ideology is uncertain, many conservatives are raising questions.

    We also learned he was really smart, careful, and that he did not hold any irresponsible or reckless positions. He was not a flame-thrower. It is clear he is not a bombastic person. He hews closely to legal materials.


    More Cass Sunstein Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Law & Regulation - Facts - Time - Liberal - Majority & Minority - America - Opinions - People - History - Property - Conservative - Academic - Philosophy - World - Language - Error & Mistake - Religions & Spirituality - Constitution - Politics - View All Cass Sunstein Quotations

    Related Authors


    Ralph Nader - Lloyd Cutler - Kenneth Starr - Justice Brandeis - Johnnie Cochran - John Buchanan - Jacques Verges - Henri La Fontaine - Christopher Darden - Cass Sunstein


Authors (by First Name)

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M
N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

Other Inspiring Sections