Top 57 Quotes & Sayings by John Paul Stevens

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American judge John Paul Stevens.

Last updated on April 14, 2025.

John Paul Stevens was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1975 to 2010. At the time of his retirement, he was the second-oldest justice in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court and the third-longest-serving justice. At the time of his death in 2019 at age 99, he was the longest-lived Supreme Court justice ever. His long tenure saw him write for the Court on most issues of American law, including civil liberties, the death penalty, government action, and intellectual property. In cases involving presidents of the United States, he wrote for the court that they were to be held accountable under American law. A registered Republican when appointed who throughout his life identified as a conservative, Stevens was considered to have been on the liberal side of the Court at the time of his retirement.

American - Judge | Born: April 20, 1920

Source: Wikipedia

The government must pursue a course of complete neutrality toward religion.

John Paul Stevens

I am not a fan of President Trump, I should say. I wouldn't try to comment on every particular issue in which we disagree, but there are plenty of them.

John Paul Stevens

I have been opposed to ceremonies at the White House. It gives the impression that the court is subordinate to the executive, which I think is quite wrong.

John Paul Stevens

To make a coverage decision, doesn't one have to make a medical judgment?

John Paul Stevens

I announced my dissent in the Citizens United orally, and I stumbled in my announcement. I had a little difficulty expressing myself. And that was out of character.

John Paul Stevens

Colonial history contains many examples of firearm regulations in urban areas that imposed obstacles to their use for protection of the home.

John Paul Stevens

There was a fear among the original framers that the federal government would be so strong that they might destroy the state militias.

John Paul Stevens

Sam Alito replacing Justice O'Connor was a very significant change. He is much more conservative. And, as for John Roberts, he is much more in the direction of protecting the rights of very rich people to donate money to campaigns than Bill Rehnquist ever was.

John Paul Stevens

When I joined the Supreme Court in 1975, both state and federal judges accepted the Court's unanimous decision in United States v. Miller as having established that the Second Amendment's protection of the right to bear arms was possessed only by members of the militia and applied only to weapons used by the militia.

John Paul Stevens

While money is used to finance speech, money is not speech.

John Paul Stevens

It is not our job to apply laws that have not yet been written.

John Paul Stevens

District of Columbia v. Heller, which recognized an individual right to possess a firearm under the Constitution, is unquestionably the most clearly incorrect decision that the Supreme Court announced during my tenure on the bench.

John Paul Stevens

I had been born a Republican. My dad was an active Republican, but he was not active in politics and I really never was either. It's true that I did belong to that party, but it really had very little impact on my public work or my private views.

John Paul Stevens

Although NFL teams have common interests such as promoting the NFL brand, they are still separate, profit-making entities, and their interests in licensing team trademarks are not necessarily aligned.

John Paul Stevens

It almost seems I was writing two separate books, the first one about the time before I went on the court and the second one about the many, many terms I was on the court.

John Paul Stevens

For over 200 years after the adoption of the Second Amendment, it was uniformly understood as not placing any limit on either federal or state authority to enact gun control legislation.

John Paul Stevens

Of course, when I joined the Navy and when I took up the correspondence course in cryptography, I had to sign an oath that I would never reveal what sort of work I was involved in. It was only some years after the war that Congress passed a statute relieving me of that obligation.

John Paul Stevens

But I wound like people to think I was an honest judge and a good judge. And I always tried the reach the best result in every case.

John Paul Stevens

If you're interested in the job and in the kind of work that's done, you have to have an interest in who's going to fill your shoes.

John Paul Stevens

When I signed on to letting the death penalty back in, I thought the procedural protections against executing an innocent person were stronger than they turned out to be.

John Paul Stevens

I always prided myself on my ability to choose good clerks, and one of the key elements was whether I thought I would like the person.

John Paul Stevens

Public officials, including state legislators, have a duty to act impartially.

John Paul Stevens

I play duplicate bridge and I play golf and I go swimming once in a while.

John Paul Stevens

The practice of executing such offenders is a relic of the past and is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency in a civilized society.

John Paul Stevens

Well, in my job, I avoid political commentary.

John Paul Stevens

All I can say is I did the best I could, and I didn't do well enough on many occasions.

John Paul Stevens

They may not be conscripted against their will as the foot soldiers in a federal crusade.

John Paul Stevens

To show a 'well-founded fear of persecution', an alien need not prove that it is more likely than not that he or she will be persecuted in his or her home country.

John Paul Stevens

I think maybe the people in elected positions are more interested in preserving their jobs than in doing the best job possible.

John Paul Stevens

I'm a person who plays Ping-Pong once in a while.

John Paul Stevens

During my years as a practicing lawyer, it just was part of your study of what Congress was trying to say in their statutes. I never really considered judges or scholars as either those who used legislative history or those who were opposed to it until after I got on the court.

John Paul Stevens

Just as the right to speak and the right to refrain from speaking are complementary components of a broader concept of individual freedom, so also the individual's freedom to choose his own creed is the counterpart of his right to refrain from accepting the creed established by the majority.

John Paul Stevens

Although it may not be a castle, [it is the] functional equivalent of a hotel room, a vacation and retirement home or a hunting and fishing cabin.

John Paul Stevens

In the national debate about a serious issue, it is the expression of the minority's viewpoint that most demands the protection of the First Amendment. Whatever the better policy may be, a full and frank discussion of the costs and benefits of the attempt to prohibit the use of marijuana is far wiser than suppression of speech because it is unpopular.

John Paul Stevens

It might be added that corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.

John Paul Stevens

A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.

John Paul Stevens

To show a well-founded fear of persecution, an alien need not prove that it is more likely than not that he or she will be persecuted in his or her home country.

John Paul Stevens

As a matter of constitutional tradition, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, we presume that governmental regulation of the content of speech is more likely to interfere with the free exchange of ideas than to encourage it. The interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship.

John Paul Stevens

Requiring that an execution be relatively painless...actually undermines the very premise on which public approval of the retribution rationale is based.

John Paul Stevens

I think this country would be much better off if we did not have capital punishment.... We cannot ignore the fact that in recent years a disturbing number of inmates on death row have been exonerated.

John Paul Stevens

Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority.

John Paul Stevens

Every individual who participated in the redistricting process knew that incumbency protection was a critical factor in producing the bizarre lines. ... Many of the oddest twists and turns of the Texas districts would never have been created if the Legislature had not been so intent on protecting party and incumbents.

John Paul Stevens

By requiring that an execution be relatively painless, we necessarily protect the inmate from enduring any punishment that is comparable to the suffering inflicted on his victim. This trend, while appropriate and required by the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, actually undermines the very premise on which public approval of the retribution rationale is based.

John Paul Stevens

One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.

John Paul Stevens

But I really think it's a very unfortunate part of our judicial system and I would feel much, much better if more states would really consider whether they think the benefits outweigh the very serious potential injustice, because in these cases the emotions are very, very high on both sides and to have stakes as high as you do in these cases, there is a special potential for error. We cannot ignore the fact that in recent years a disturbing number of inmates on death row have been exonerated.

John Paul Stevens

"Respecting" means concerning or with reference to. But it also means with respect~ that is "reverence," "good-will," "regard" to. Taking into account this richer meaning, the Establishment Clause, in banning laws that concern religion, especially prohibits those that pay homage to religion.

John Paul Stevens

The level of discourse reaching a mailbox simply cannot be limited to that which would be suitable for a sandbox.

John Paul Stevens

After all, a district judge who gives harsh sentences to Yankees fans and lenient sentences to Red Sox fans would not be acting reasonably even if her procedural rulings were impeccable.

John Paul Stevens

Whenever we remove a brick from the wall that was designed to separate religion and government, we increase the risk of religious strife and weaken the foundation of our democracy.

John Paul Stevens

The interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship.

John Paul Stevens

At bottom, the Court's opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self-government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.

John Paul Stevens

Although NFL teams have common interests such as promoting the NFL brand, they are still separate, profit-making entities, and their interests in licensing team trademarks are not necessarily aligned

John Paul Stevens

Even in high school, a rule that permits only one point of view to be expressed is less likely to produce correct answers than the open discussion of countervailing views.

John Paul Stevens

When the commission finds that a pig has entered the parlor, the exercise of its regulatory power does not depend on proof the pig is obscene.

John Paul Stevens

I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. ... I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch - AND I WILL BE HEARD.

John Paul Stevens

The graphic emphasis placed on those first lines is rather hard to square with the proposition that the monument expresses no particular religious preference.

John Paul Stevens

Our love cannot be measured, it just is.

John Paul Stevens

Top 57 Quotes & Sayings by John Paul Stevens

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