Jonathan Turley Quotations

What the president ordered in this case was a crime.

The fact is, the federal law is perfectly clear. At the heart of this operation was a federal crime. The president has already conceded that he personally ordered that crime and renewed that order at least 30 times. This would clearly satisfy the standard of high crimes and misdemeanors for the purpose of an impeachment.

Obama is as likely to be impeached as he is to be installed as the next pontiff. And I say that as someone who has testified in Congress that this president has violated federal laws, unconstitutionally appointed various executive-branch officers and improperly transferred money.

People will rue the day they allow presidents to view themselves above the law.

perfectly medieval...there was never any evidence of espionage.

One of the most shocking disclosures after Katrina and Rita was how little prepared the local and state governments were, not only in handling the hurricanes but also their aftermath. You got the feeling that states like Louisiana had the same level of hurricane protection as Iowa,

I happen to agree with many of President Obama's policies, but in our system, it is often as important how you do something as what you do.

Frankly, most governments are used to lying to each other - to a degree that most people would find shocking. Part of diplomacy is the art of strategic lying.

He's basically being put to death for the act of omission. There would be no limit to how far this type of theory could be used.

Whatever purpose confirmation hearings may have, this is clearly not the purpose. You have nominees talking like politicians, giving empty sound bites.

Life on the appeals court tends to move at a leisurely and comfortable pace.

Law professors like Obama tend to view the law as one means to an end, and others, like myself, tend to view it as the end itself.

Our carefully constructed system of checks and balances is being negated by the rise of a fourth branch, an administrative state of sprawling departments and agencies that govern with increasing autonomy and decreasing transparency.

I think she got confused. It's very surprising.

Under the common law, one of the more controversial rules is the 'no duty to rescue rule' that says that, if you were not responsible for placing someone in danger or risk, you have no obligation to help them, even when it would cost little to save their life.

There are many people that frankly cannot get themselves to oppose Barack Obama. They make a lot of excuse for him.

Truth be known, President Obama has never been particularly driven by principle. Right after his election, I wrote a column in a few days warning people that even though I voted for Obama, he was not what people were describing him to be. I saw him in the Senate. I saw him in Chicago.

The president's dead wrong. When the president admits that he violated federal law, that raises serious constitutional questions of high crimes and misdemeanors.

The president's claim to be acting under the authority of the resolution borders on the ridiculous.

Few people know that President Obama has used drone attacks many times more than Bush ever did. Obama's off the charts in terms of drone attack.

The other irony is that Roberts is a lifelong advocate of federalism and states' rights. Like his mentor, Rehnquist, he has a narrow view of the commerce clause.

This type of violation should be a textbook example of an impeachment issue because not only is it a federal crime, but it violates the doctrine of separation of powers.

Throughout this case, the government has denied evidence for purely tactical reasons under the guise of national security.

To hear about the use of dogs in this way within the United States is truly shocking.

Bill Clinton was impeached primarily for criminal conduct: lying under oath and misleading a federal grand jury about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Nixon would have been impeached for a wide array of criminal acts, as well as abuses of power.

There's no question that Roberts will vote like William Rehnquist, ... If he swings, it will be from right to far right.

The Rhode Island decision bucks a growing trend against this type of liability. Courts have generally been hostile to the use of 'public nuisance' to hold products manufacturers liable for injuries.

I've said it before: Barack Obama is really the president Richard Nixon always wanted to be. You know, he's been allowed to act unilaterally in a way that we've fought for decades.

These defense attorneys are doing the right thing and probing every possible vulnerability.

The taped message is consistent with my notes as well as my email and telephone communications with editors.

Prosecutors haven't revealed everything they have, so it's hard to render judgment on them.

People don't seem to understand that the separation of powers is not about the power of these branches; it's there to protect individual liberty - it's there to protect us from the concentration of power.

People don't realize that the Obama Administration has been, if anything, harder on whistleblowers than the Bush Administration. Part of the reason is that they know that the response will be more muted because the traditional constituency supporting whistleblowers just happen to be the same constituency as Obama's.

After almost half a billion dollars spent on the computer registration system for Obamacare, the website coughed, sputtered, and appeared to descend into an immediate coma as millions tried to log on. One reason is that the Obama administration never fully tested it.

As a practical matter, prosecutors don't go to grand juries for a misdemeanor.

This is good news for the defense only in that the government really has struggled to bring as much as possible about the art purchases into the case,

This is one of the most serious constitutional crises that we've ever faced in the country.

This certainly smacks of cronyism. The most outstanding characteristic of this appointee seems to be her long association with the president.

This certainly smacks of cronyism, ... The most outstanding characteristic of this appointee seems to be her long association with the president.

This case failed due to the absence of material facts needed to convince this judge.

There isn't any question in my mind that this operation violated federal law. And once you determine that federal law was violated, you ... reach a very troubling set of related conclusions.

The Republican and Democratic parties have accomplished an amazing feat with the red state/blue state paradigm. They've convinced everyone that regardless of how bad they are, the other guy is worse.

There's a misconception about Barack Obama as a former constitutional law professor. First of all, there are plenty of professors who are 'legal relativists.' They tend to view legal principles as relative to whatever they're trying to achieve.

It only magnified the low sentence given the defendant in the case. While prosecutors may have been personally gratified by it, it only tended to highlight the fact that this was not a very successful prosecution.

It's not particularly surprising that a fight between a former stripper and a millionaire's son is good copy. What is surprising is that this case is going to end up in a dozen casebooks and that Anna Nicole Smith will become the mother of probate law for many generations to come. That's not bad for a stripper.

For many, the recent disclosure of massive warrantless surveillance programs of all citizens by the Obama administration has brought back memories of George Orwell's '1984.' Another Orwell book seems more apt as the White House and its allies try to contain the scandal: 'Animal Farm.'

for Ashcroft to serve as attorney general and to protect the right to choose despite his own personal views in opposition.

It's hard to describe how many parts of the U.S. Constitution this law actually violates . . . It interferes with constitutional guarantees regarding contracts (to rent rooms), families, equal protection, even First Amendment issues like freedom of association. ... It's hard to believe any attorney actually reviewed this law.

The use of the (congressional) force resolution to justify the NSA wiretaps borders on absurdity.

The fact that you have different results in these cases is itself a problem. I've yet to meet anyone who seriously argues Andrea Yates was not insane. But by sticking to a rigid standard of only knowing right and wrong, you exclude the most common forms of insanity: people responding to evil voices.

I'm sort of astonished by it. It's like a completely different team at the White House is handling it.

If you believe the president violated criminal provisions of the law, I don't see how it wouldn't qualify. ... If the president commits a criminal act, you are obligated to hold impeachment hearings.

In Washington, task forces work like Tylenol: they reduce the symptoms of scandal while leaving the substance untouched.

I supported Barack Obama. I wasn't very quiet about my support. I thought he was going to be a refreshing change to George Bush. But what has happened is that we have an election that's become a single-issue election, and that issue is Barack Obama. And he's an icon to both sides.

He's a man who seems to take his legacy seriously, ... The last thing he wants is to be viewed as the man who ran through Roberts on a party vote.

He can argue he has an evil twin, but that's it, because that evidence is rather conclusive,

The highest points I give Rehnquist is for his sense of long-term judicial strategy,

There's nothing more dangerous than a place that doesn't exist.

It's highly ironic that it was the conservatives on the court who overturned so many statutes.

There's no question that Roberts will vote like William Rehnquist... If he swings, it will be from right to far right.

While Congress saw some need to loosen the standard in the initial days of a war, it wanted the president to comply with FISA in carrying out surveillance in the United States.

For states' rights advocates, the Constitution is like a contract that is openly violated by one party with impunity. On paper, the states remain sovereign powers, while in reality the federal government appears able to dictate everything from the ingredients of school lunches to speed limits. Congress now routinely collects taxes in order to return the money to the states with conditions on their conforming to federal demands.

I'm making tapes for insomniacs to use in the future. I'm going to sell them as a kit to cure insomnia.