Orrin Hatch Justice Quotations

Senators can ask any questions they want, but these justice nominees really don't have to answer them,

I can tell you categorically they are not going to be the filter. I know who the filters are, ... They're in the White House and the Justice Department as they were in the Clinton administration.

I think this vote is part of a long practice, ever since the confirmation battle over Justice Rehnquist to become chief justice, where Republican nominees have been treated in a despicable fashion.

The position that you have been nominated for is chief justice of the United States. Do you plan to use that role as a bully pulpit to encourage members of the bar to take seriously their responsibility to undertake pro bono work as you have done throughout your legal career?

whether the Justice Department is serving the American people as it should.

Of the 67 attorneys general we have had, only a handful have come close to the qualifications that John Ashcroft possesses, ... He has always been committed to equal justice and opportunity for all.

Even for the Clinton Administration, the ends do not justify the means, ... As pleased as most of us are that Elian is reunited with his father ... our oversight responsibilities compel us to examine whether the conduct of the attorney general and the Department of Justice are in accord with federal law, effective law-enforcement procedures, and the Constitution.

In this particular case, you have a man who, from the criminal law standpoint, has more criminal law experience than any justice in history, certainly more than any on the current court. Judges should not be concerned about ideology. They ought to be concerned about the principles of law that they should uphold.

I want to expand Waco to look into the Justice Department and its failure to act appropriately in all those instances,

Chief Justice [John] Roberts compared judges to umpires, who apply rules they did not write and cannot change to the competition before them.