Edward Lazarus Quotes (20 Quotes)

There's a certain romanticism about the court's role in American life, the ability of the court to be a moral beacon for the country, that drives justices to take progressive stands.

This law does seem to be crafted to demand some kind of Supreme Court review. Because it really goes to this question of how much you have to protect the life versus the health of the mother. ... And it actually could be one of those cases that could turn on John Roberts' vote.

If he ever thought about putting forward a hard-nosed conservative, in the wake of Katrina and the negative publicity he's received, this is not the time to pick a political fight.

For better or worse, the issue of abortion seems to be the one on which the Supreme Court is judged more than any other.

The issue of physician-assisted suicide is tied into what President Bush calls 'the culture of life.' So this is a real emotional issue for them conservatives. And it's likely to be a very close ruling at the court, with Roberts again, perhaps, a key vote.

And then the question becomes, can the guidelines in general be maintained or will the guidelines be thrown out And we then go back to the regime that existed before the guidelines under which judges had tremendous sentencing discretion. That's another bi

She is arguably the most influential woman in the United States, ... Closed Chamber An Inside Account of the Supreme Court.

The conference itself is not a place of debate, ... They don't engage across the conference table.

It sounds great from an institutional standpoint. Maybe the Court could do a better job of persuasion. But it won't come overnight. If Roberts leads by example and writes clearly and talks to his colleagues, it may happen.

We have this idealistic notion in this country that we can live in kind of splendid anonymity, we can walk around and be left alone. And this question really raises, in the post-911 era, the issue of whether that's really true anymore.

I think there you're going to get a measure of what seems to have been over the last few years an increasing skepticism at the center of the court over the death penalty, over the way the process works in the lower courts and in the state courts and whether the machinery of death, as justice Harry Blackmun once called it, is really working the way we want it.

The better argument for the result reached in Roe v. Wade is that it's necessary for the equality of women, rather than grounding it in the privacy right, ... Closed Chambers The Rise, Fall, and Future of the Modern Supreme Court.

Rehnquist's death is unlikely to make a lot of difference in the court, ... But over the long term, by replacing Rehnquist with another conservative, you lock in the court for 20 years.

But there is the very deeply held belief in the court that they do nothing that gives the appearance of impropriety. And I think in this case, Cheney may have gone over the line by inviting him Scalia down to hunt. Scalia, in a reflective moment, may be thinking, 'I shouldn't have done that.'

The Rehnquist revolution has reached a certain equilibrium. They don't seem to be going in any radical directions. Even among the two liberal justices, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, they are cautious pragmatists.

Some of the things he has said can't be good news to conservatives,

This court likes taking on hot button issues, with abortion as an exception,

So much of where the justices go in terms of terrorism, law enforcement, even abortion, a range of issues will depend on the court's composition in coming years.

She doesn't give much guidance to other courts in her rulings, there's a lack of consistency, distinctiveness, ... Often it seems her opinions are too narrow, reflecting only how it strikes just Justice O'Connor, what she personally thinks.

It will be more chaotic than an ordinary term. It adds an extra layer of difficulty for Roberts coming in as the new chief.