Edward Kennedy Law Quotations

Based on the record available, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that Judge Roberts's view of the rule of law would include as paramount the protection of basic rights,

Do we operate under a system of equal justice under law? Or is there one system for the average citizen and another for the high and mighty?

I had the privilege of chairing Judge Samuel Alito confirmation hearing in 1990. And at that time, he had practiced law for 14 years, but only represented one client, the United States government.

Legal immigrants play by the rules and come in under the law. They work, raise their families, pay taxes, and serve in the Armed Forces. ... Legal immigrants do not seek to cross the border, or overstay their visas. They come here the right way. ... And, by and large, they are here as the result of reunifying families...

We should strengthen our immigration laws to prevent the importation of foreign wages and working conditions. We should make it illegal for employers to lay off Americans and then fill their jobs by bringing in workers from overseas. Any U.S. employer who wishes to hire from abroad - even for temporary jobs - should have to recruit U.S. workers first. And we should end the unskilled immigration that competes with young Americans just entering the job market.

Will a nominee embrace and uphold the essential meaning of the four words inscribed above the entrance of the Supreme Court building: Equal justice under law?

Justice Lewis Powell spoke for all of us when he said: Equal justice under law is perhaps the most inspiring idea of our society. It is one of the ends for which our entire legal system exists.

Today, President Bush is faced with a decision that affects each and every American and has the potential to impact every facet of constitutional law and the freedoms this country was founded upon.

We owe it to future generations of Americans to oppose this nomination. He's the wrong justice for justice and the rule of law in America.

During Senator Ashcroft's quarter-century of public service, he has taken strong positions on a range of important issues in the range of the Justice Department, ... Unfortunately and often he has used the power of his high office to advance his personal views in spite of the law of the land.

I'm deeply troubled by a narrow and cramped and perhaps even a mean-spirited view of the law that appears in some of your writings, ... It appears you did not fully appreciate the problem of discrimination in our society.