“The layman's Constitutional view is that what he likes is Constitutional and that which he doesn't like is un-Constitutional. That about measures up the Constitutional acumen of the average person.”
News conference, Washington, D.C., reported in The New York Times (February 25, 1971), p. 38.
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Hugo Black 26
U.S. Supreme Court justice 1886–1971Related quotes
2000s, The Real Abraham Lincoln: A Debate (2002), Q&A
Context: DiLorenzo thinks that it is a reflection on Lincoln's anti-slavery character that he supported the Fugitive Slave Act. But the Fugitive Slave Clause is in the Constitution, and Lincoln thought that any refusal to implement the right clearly defined in the Constitution would justify secession. You can't pick and choose which parts of the Constitution you like. Once you do that, then the Constitution is simply, as Jefferson said once, "a blank sheet of paper." Jefferson said that when he was contemplating purchasing Louisiana. And having said that by purchasing it he would make the Constitution a blank sheet of paper, he went ahead and purchased Louisiana.
“Agreement in likes and dislikes—this, and this only, is what constitutes true friendship.”
Idem velle atque idem nolle, ea demum firma amicitia est.
As quoted by Sallust (86 BC – c. 35 BC) in Catiline's War, Book XX, pt. 4 (trans. J. C. Rolfe).
Variant translations:
To like and dislike the same things, that is indeed true friendship.
To like the same things and to dislike the same things, only this is a strong friendship.
Speech before the Chamber of Commerce, Elmira, New York (3 May 1907); published in Addresses and Papers of Charles Evans Hughes, Governor of New York, 1906–1908 (1908), p. 139
Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah
The Rediff Interview/R Venkataraman
17 U.S. (4 Wheaton) 316, 421. Regarding the interpretation of the Necessary and Proper Clause.
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Context: We admit, as all must admit, that the powers of the Government are limited, and that its limits are not to be transcended. But we think the sound construction of the Constitution must allow to the national legislature that discretion with respect to the means by which the powers it confers are to be carried into execution which will enable that body to perform the high duties assigned to it in the manner most beneficial to the people. Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the constitution, are constitutional.
“Constitution Doesn't Have A Preamble. Not. Nope. Stop it.”
The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC (November 5, 2009)
Fox News Sunday
2011-05-15, quoted in * Ron Paul Calls Social Security and Medicare Unconstitutional, Compares Them to ‘Slavery’
Think Progress
2011-05-15
Ian
Millhiser
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/05/15/166363/paul-ss-medicare-slavery/
2011-08-28
2011
[Remarks by the President Announcing Judge Merrick Garland as his Nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick, Garland, w:Merrick Garland, The White House, March 16, 2016, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Remarks_by_the_President_Announcing_Judge_Merrick_Garland_as_his_Nominee_to_the_Supreme_Court#Remarks_by_Judge_Garland]; quote then excerpted in:
USA Today, March 18, 2016, March 17, 2016, Obama: Merrick Garland qualified to serve on Supreme Court immediately, Gregory Korte http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/03/16/obama-supreme-court-nomination/81824982/,; and quote also excerpted in source:
CNN, March 16, 2016, March 18, 2016, Who is Merrick Garland?, Ariane De Vogue and Tami Luhby http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/16/politics/who-is-merrick-garland/index.html?eref=rss_politics,
Remarks by Judge Garland upon nomination to Supreme Court of the United States (2016)