"Our Constitution exists to secure individual freedom, the essential condition of human flourishing. Liberty is not provided by government; liberty preexists government. It’s our natural birthright, not a gift from the sovereign. Our founders upended things and divided power to enshrine a promise, not a process."

Don Willett Law See all quotes by Don Willett →

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“I diligently self-censor and aim for carefulness,” Willett told me, “A few cardinal rules: I don’t throw partisan sharp elbows or discuss pending cases. I keep things light and upbeat. Whether you’re crafting a 140-page opinion or a 140-character tweet, judges must always be judicious.”

“Judges should always behave judicially by adjudicating, never politically by legislating. I leave policy to policymakers. They’re preeminent, but they’re not omnipotent. In other words, lawmakers decide if laws pass, but judges decide if laws pass muster. There’s a fateful difference between activist judges who concoct rights and active judges who dutifully protect the rights our Framers actually enshrined.”

Resonant Thoughts

"In human freedom in the philosophical sense I am definitely a disbeliever. Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity. Schopenhauer's saying, that "a…"

— Albert Einstein

Science1879–1955

#freedom

"How false is the conception, how frantic the pursuit, of that treacherous phantom which men call Liberty."

— John Ruskin

Art1819–1900

#freedom

"I do not want, and my friends would not want me, to do anything to jar with any effort on the part of the Government for real peace, but we have no confidence at all in a proposal to secure peace by p…"

— George Lansbury

Politics1859–1940

#friendship

"Be sceptical, question authority, be a rebel. Do not conform and don’t be ordinary. Remember, all human progress is the result of far-sighted people challenging orthodoxy, tradition and rich, powerful…"

— Peter Tatchell

Literature1952

#power