Antonin Scalia

Society's mores have changed, and what used to be thought not to be cruel and unusual now is thought to be cruel and unusual. ”

With each decision of ours that takes from the People a question properly left to them - with each decision that is unabashedly based not on law, but on the 'reasoned judgment' of a bare majority of this Court - we move one step closer to being reminded of our impotence. ”

If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder? Can we have it against other things? ”

What is a moderate interpretation of the text? Halfway between what it really means and what you'd like it to mean? ”

A good, hard-hitting dissent keeps you honest. ”

By formally declaring anyone opposed to same-sex marriage an enemy of human decency, the majority arms well every challenger to a state law restricting marriage to its traditional definition. ”

I love to argue. I've always loved to argue. And I love to point out the weaknesses of the opposing arguments. It may well be that I'm something of a shin kicker. It may well be that I'm something of a contrarian. ”

A journalistic purpose could be someone with a Xerox machine in a basement. ”

Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited... It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. ”

What secret knowledge, one must wonder, is breathed into lawyers when they become Justices of this Court that enables them to discern that a practice which the text of the Constitution does not clearly proscribe, and which our people have regarded as constitutional for 200 years, is in fact unconstitutional? ”