Elena Kagan

“And I think the judiciary has a very important role to play in protecting minorities, in protecting individuals, in protecting people who don't have a lot of power.”

“Judges are not politicians, even when they come to the bench by a political process.”

“People can debate whether we have a living constitution. We have a living Supreme Court.”

“A judge's job is to interpret the law, not to make it.”

“Reading is a gift. It's something you can do almost anytime and anywhere. It can be a tremendous source of entertainment, of solace, of information.”

“I have no view of what the law should be. I have a view of what the law is.”

“The truth is that we all have our priors. We all have our beliefs. We all have our values.”

“What my political views or my political preferences are is something that I would withhold; it's not something that I would share.”

“We are all textualists now.”

“The First Amendment is a great protector of the weak and the marginalized.”

“Even in a society that looks on the love of two men or two women as sinful, that is no justification for a law that declares that love unequal.”

“I've led a school whose faculty and students examine and discuss and debate every aspect of our law and legal system. And what I've learned, that law is an instrument of society for society to achieve its goals.”