John Roberts
John Roberts
John Glover Roberts Jr.is the 17th and current Chief Justice of the United States. He took his seat on September 29, 2005, having been nominated by President George W. Bush after the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. He has been described as having a conservative judicial philosophy in his jurisprudence...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJudge
Date of Birth27 January 1955
CountryUnited States of America
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Judges are umpires. I will remember it is my job to call balls and strikes, and not pitch or bat.
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I'm not standing for election and it is contrary to the role of judges in our society to say that this judge should go on the bench because this is his or her position and those are the positions they're going to apply,
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Judges and justices are servants of the law, not the other way around. Judges are like umpires. Umpires don't make the rules; they apply them,
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Judges are like umpires. Umpires don't make the rules. They apply them.
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No, I don't think there is, ... You look outside yourself, to other sources. This is the basis for judges (to) wear black robes, because it doesn't matter who they are as individuals . . . it's their understanding of the law that will shape the decision.
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No, I don't think there is. Sometimes it's hard to give meaning to a constitutional term in a particular case. But you don't look to your own values and beliefs. You look outside yourself to other sources. This is the basis for ? you know, judges wear black robes because it doesn't matter who they are as individuals. That's not going to shape their decision. It's their understanding of the law that will shape their decision.
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Judges do not have a commission to solve society's problems, ... their role, while important, is limited.
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The Framers were not the sort of people, having fought a revolution to get the right of self-government, to sit down and say, 'Let's take all the difficult issues before us and let's have the judges decide them.'
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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.
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I have no platform. Judges are not politicians who can promise to do certain things in exchange for votes, ... Judges are like umpires. Umpires don't make the rules; they apply them.
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I vividly remember my first day on the White House staff. My office, of course, was in the Old Executive Office Building. I didn't rate one in the West Wing; but don't try to tell me or any of the rest of us working there that we weren't working in the White House.
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If the Constitution says that the little guy should win, the little guy's going to win in court before me, ... But if the Constitution says that the big guy should win, well, then the big guy's going to win.
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They apply and decide cases according to the judicial process, not on the basis of promises made earlier to get elected or promises made earlier to get confirmed,
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If the Constitution says that the little guy should win, then the little guy's going to win in the court before me, ... But if the Constitution says that the big guy should win, well then the big guy's going to win because my obligation is to the Constitution.