“I don't believe we should bend the Constitution under any circumstance. It says what it says. We should do honor to it.”

—  Sonia Sotomayor

1997 Senate confirmation hearing, reported in Deborah Tedford, " "Senate Will Have To Confirm Court Choice http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104532843&ft=1&f=3", NPR (26 May 2009).

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I don't believe we should bend the Constitution under any circumstance. It says what it says. We should do honor to it." by Sonia Sotomayor?
Sonia Sotomayor photo
Sonia Sotomayor 12
U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1954

Related quotes

Lee Kuan Yew photo

“But we either believe in democracy or we don't. If we do, then, we must say categorically, without qualification, that no restraint from the any democratic processes, other than by the ordinary law of the land, should be allowed… If you believe in democracy, you must believe in it unconditionally. If you believe that men should be free, then, they should have the right of free association, of free speech, of free publication. Then, no law should permit those democratic processes to be set at nought, and no excuse, whether of security, should allow a government to be deterred from doing what it knows to be right, and what it must know to be right…”

Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) First Prime Minister of Singapore

Lee Kuan Yew, Legislative Assembly Debates, April 27, 1955
1950s

Charles Evans Hughes photo

“We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is, and the judiciary is the safeguard of our liberty and of our property under the Constitution.”

Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948) American judge

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

Michael Ignatieff photo

“Some voices are calling on America to circle the wagons. Some are even saying that our enemies do worse, so we should respond in kind. The problem here is that this is America. This is a constitutional republic based on the rule of law and equal respect for all persons. We can’t pretend that we can bend the rules any which way.”

Michael Ignatieff (1947) professor at Harvard Kennedy School and former Canadian politician

From "Living Fearlessly in a Fearless World" Ignatieff Commencement Address to Whitman College (USA), 2004

Billy Davies photo

“Under no circumstances will any supporter try to tell me what I should do. That is why I have the track record that I have got.”

Billy Davies (1964) Scottish association football player and manager

Feb 2010, http://www.thisisnottinghamforest.co.uk/news/Forest-boss-Davies-stand-record/article-1832938-detail/article.html
A response to Forest supporters who booed when he made a substitution at Doncaster Rovers

Chuck Palahniuk photo

“Why should I believe any of this?'
It happens that fast.
I say, because I think I like you.
Marla says, 'Not love?'
This is a cheesy enough moment, I say. Don't push it.”

Chuck Palahniuk (1962) American novelist, essayist
William Kingdon Clifford photo

“We have no reason to fear lest a habit of conscientious inquiry should paralyse the actions of our daily life.
But because it is not enough to say, "It is wrong to believe on unworthy evidence," without saying also what evidence is worthy, we shall now go on to inquire under what circumstances it is lawful to believe on the testimony of others; and then, further, we shall inquire more generally when and why we may believe that which goes beyond our own experience, or even beyond the experience of mankind.”

William Kingdon Clifford (1845–1879) English mathematician and philosopher

The Ethics of Belief (1877), The Weight Of Authority

W. Somerset Maugham photo

“I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them. Then, though we are conscious of having faults as glaring as theirs, we can believe that that is no hindrance to our achieving also something of their virtues.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 71

Antonin Scalia photo

“I think it is up to the judge to say what the Constitution provided, even if what it provided is not the best answer, even if you think it should be amended. If that's what it says, that's what it says.”

Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Forum at American University http://domino.american.edu/AU/media/mediarel.nsf/1D265343BDC2189785256B810071F238/1F2F7DC4757FD01E85256F890068E6E0?OpenDocument (2005).
2000s

Pat Paulsen photo

“I've repeatedly warned we must avoid the extremists: those who say we should pull out our troops in Vietnam immediately, those who say we should escalate and go right into North Vietnam… I tell you, we should continue doing what we have been: just messing around.”

Pat Paulsen (1927–1997) United States Marine

Unidentified press conference, 1968
Featured in Pat Paulsen for President (1968), part 2 of 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbP0ufyax5A&feature=relmfu, 01:01 ff (10:01 ff in full program)

Greta Thunberg photo

“I want people to unite behind the science… And that is what we have to realize, that that is what we have to do right now.. I’m not the one who’s saying these things. I’m not the one who we should be listening to. And I say that all the time. I say we need to listen to the scientists.”

Greta Thunberg (2003) Swedish climate change activist

We Are Striking to Disrupt the System: An Hour with 16-Year-Old Climate Activist Greta Thunberg https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/11/greta_thunberg_swedish_activist_climate_crisis, DemocracyNow (11 September 2019)
2019

Related topics