John G. Roberts

John Glover Roberts (born January 27, 1955) is the seventeenth and current Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Quotes

  • By properly contenting itself with the decision of actual cases or controversies at the instance of someone suffering distinct and palpable injury, the judiciary leaves for the political branches the generalized grievances that are their responsibility under the Constitution. Far from an assault on the other branches, this is an insistence that they are supreme within their respective spheres, protected from intrusion — however welcome or invited — of the judiciary. Separation of powers is a zero-sum game. If one branch unconstitutionally aggrandizes itself, it is at the expense of one of the other branches.
    • Article III Limits on Statutory Standing, Duke Law Journal (1993); partially quoted in Greenhouse, Linda (September 3, 2015). "Judges Standing Upside-Down". New York Times. 
  • The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.
  • But the First Amendment protects against the Government; it does not leave us at the mercy of noblesse oblige. We would not uphold an unconstitutional statute merely because the Government promised to use it responsibly. [...] The Government’s assurance that it will apply [a statutory provision] more restrictively than its language provides is pertinent only as an implicit acknowledgment of the potential constitutional problems with a more natural reading.
  • Alternatively, the Government proposes that law enforcement agencies "develop protocols to address" concerns raised by cloud computing. Probably a good idea, but the Founders did not fight a revolution to gain the right to government agency protocols.
  • Five lawyers have closed the debate and enacted their own vision of marriage as a matter of constitutional law... Just who do we think we are?

Quotes about Roberts

  • Either he is a liar or he is too naïve to hold any important job including, and especially, this one. This is like a legal ruling written by the little mermaid.
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