26 Quotes by Douglas Kmiec

There are people in Washington who become a kind of tight political circle, in the sense of almost the secret handshake.

So judges are responsible for abiding by the morality in their own lives, but they are not responsible for imposing that morality in judicial decision-making.

I don't think among the favored categories of gender and ethnicity, beyond Al Gonzales, the president has an obvious choice.

I expect intense pressure on the president from the loyal opposition to nominate as moderate a voice as he can find for the O'Connor replacement.

He has effected a sea-change in American constitutional jurisprudence. His sophisticated revival of federalism, in particular, renews that which makes democracy work -- not in theory, but on the ground. It gives divergent voices a chance to be heard and prevail, not in one venue, but in 50. Had the Court heeded his wisdom more thoroughly, there would be less nonsense about red and blue division and far less cultural warfare.

He is inclined to the view of the First Amendment that the government is not intended to be hostile to religion. It is intended to be accommodating when it can.

He is genial, warm, welcoming, not quick to take umbrage or disagree. He will be very effective by wit, intelligence and the ability to build coalitions for particular points of view.

Here is somebody at still a young age who had a very strong institutional appreciation for the role of the Supreme Court in the federal system and worried far more maturely than some of his senior counterparts of the effect on our constitutional system.

He's actually demonstrated that he's grown comfortable with the public interaction in a way that wasn't entirely true when he had his own confirmation hearings, where he appeared tentative.