John Roberts Area Quotations

There are many areas where it appears I knew a lot more when I was 25 than I know now, when I'm 50, ... I certainly wouldn't write everything today as I wrote it back then, but I don't think any of us would do things or write things today as we did when we were 25 and had all the answers.

That is an area in which I think the court can redouble its efforts to try to come to some consistency in its approach.

The approach was to avoid giving specific responses to any direct questions on legal issues likely to come before the court, but demonstrating in the response a firm command of the subject area and awareness of the relevant precedents and arguments,

The approach, ... (is) to avoid giving specific responses to any direct questions on legal issues likely to come before the court, but demonstrating in the response a firm command of the subject area and awareness of the relevant precedents and arguments.

been able to make progress in the area of rights, and not had just empty paper promises.

I'm certainly not an expert in the area and haven't followed and have no way of evaluating the relative effectiveness of the law as amended or the law as it was prior to 1982.

But there are thousands, tens of thousands of other people in this area who just have no place to go,

I tend to take a more practical and pragmatic approach to things, rather than a theoretical or ideological approach, ... But I do think when it gets into an area where the correctness or incorrectness or my agreement or disagreement with a particular precedent is in an area that is likely to come before the court or could well come before the court, I do have to draw the line there. ... My views on the cases that I think are not likely to come before the court, I'm perfectly willing to discuss.

In certain areas - busing and quotas, for example - it makes eminent sense to pursue legislation to guarantee that our policies cannot be easily undone,