John Roberts Rule Quotations

I will be vigilant to protect the independence and integrity of the Supreme Court, and I will work to ensure that it upholds the rule of law and safeguards those liberties that make this land one of endless possibilities for all Americans.

President Ronald Reagan used to speak of the Soviet constitution, and he noted that it purported to grant wonderful rights of all sorts to people. But those rights were empty promises, because that system did not have an independent judiciary to uphold the rule of law and enforce those rights.

I have been fortunate for the past two years to serve on a court in which all of the judges ... put aside those (political) ties and those views and become judges all focused on the same mission of vindicating the rule of law. And if you look at the decisions of the D.C. Circuit, you'll see that we're almost always unanimous. We almost always come out the same way and to the extent there are disagreements, they don't shape up along political lines,

It is not a process under which senators get to say, 'I want you to rule this way and this way and this way, and if you'll tell me that you'll rule this way and this way and this way, I'll vote for you, ... That's not a bargaining process. Judges are not politicians. They cannot promise to do certain things in exchange for votes.

be vigilant to protect the independence and integrity of the Supreme Court, and I will work to ensure that it upholds the rule of law and safeguards those liberties that make this land one of endless possibilities for all Americans.

I know there are people of strongly held views on both sides of the issue ... And I know that the responsibility of a judge confronting this issue is to decide the case according to the rule of law consistent with the precedents, not to take sides in the dispute as a matter of policy, but to decide it according to the law.

The cause I believe in passionately, the one to which I have dedicated my career, is the vindication of the rule of law.