Sam Brownback Quotes & Sayings

Unborn children do not have a voice, but they are young members of the human family. It is time to look at the unborn child, and recognize that it is really a young human, who can feel pain and should be treated with care. — Sam Brownback

Seats on the [Court] bench are not reserved for causes or interests. They're given to those who will uphold the rule of law so long as the nominee is well-qualified to interpret and apply the law. — Sam Brownback

The historical relationship between Christians and Jews for most of the two thousand years of Christianity has not been good and it's been mostly persecution by Christians of Jews - not all the time, not every place, but mostly it's been that. I think that's just a terribly regretful thing. I don't see it anywhere in the Scriptures that I read, that Christians are to persecute Jews. I think it's been quite damaging. I think it's been a bad witness. — Sam Brownback

I enjoyed working with Ted Kennedy. — Sam Brownback

History has shown that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg did, in fact, dramatically change the balance of the court in many critical areas, such as abortion, the privacy debate expansion and child pornography. — Sam Brownback

I do a number of things working on human rights issues, prison recidivism rates, and then I also push and have worked a lot on the social issues of rebuilding the family. — Sam Brownback

I believe in the sanctity of marriage. — Sam Brownback

We must take proactive steps to promote democracy and human rights abroad. — Sam Brownback

My dad farmed, my granddad was a farmer. I wanted to be a farmer. — Sam Brownback

Children of those who have been incarcerated are five times more likely to go to prison than children of parents who have never been incarcerated. The sins of the father visiting the child. — Sam Brownback

Unborn children can experience pain even more so than adults as the baby has more pain receptors per square inch than at any other time in its life. — Sam Brownback

It is time for the government of China to stop holding innocent religious figures in captivity merely for peacefully protesting China's occupation of Tibet. — Sam Brownback

You can raise good children in single parent households, and many of you perhaps here today come from that type of environment. It is possible and many do it in heroic situations, but it's much more difficult and the numbers move against us in a broad society. — Sam Brownback

Narrow scope of judicial power was the reason that people accepted the idea that the federal courts could have the power of judicial review; that is, the ability to decide whether a challenged law comports with the Constitution. — Sam Brownback

And you can claim whatever you want to of being pro-life or pro- choice, but the right to a abortion is not in the Constitution. The court created it. It created a constitutional right. And these decisions removed a fully appropriate political judgment from the people of the several states and has led to many adverse consequences. — Sam Brownback

I'm a Ronald Reagan conservative, I'm an economic conservative, I'm strong military. But I also voice and speak and work hard on the social issues. — Sam Brownback

I stated at Justice [John] Roberts' hearing, the court's injected itself into many of the political debates of our day. — Sam Brownback

I think the real needs in the country are for cultural renewal. — Sam Brownback

Immigration is a volatile issue, but we're in the middle of it now, and probably the worst thing to do is to not do anything. Everybody recognizes the current system is not working the way we want it to work. It has huge flaws to it; need to do something. — Sam Brownback

Among the most famous of these Supreme Court cases of exercise of political power I believe are the cases of Roe V. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, two 1973 cases based on false statements which created a constitutional right to abortion. — Sam Brownback

Everybody has values. Now, you know it may be formed in a secular setting, it may be formed in an intellectual setting, but everybody comes forward with values. — Sam Brownback

Dick Durbin's a worthy opponent on any debate. He's very intelligent, quick. Knows his facts and puts them forward well. — Sam Brownback

We must do everything we can to be more aggressive in confronting Syria about what they are doing in Iraq. — Sam Brownback

When Ruth Bader Ginsburg came in front of the Senate and was approved 96-3 to be on the Supreme Court to replace conservative justice Byron White. This is in 1993.Now, Justice Ginsburg, it was noted earlier, was a general counsel for the ACLU, certainly a liberal group. It was abundantly clear during the confirmation hearing that Ginsburg would swing the balance of the court to the left.But because President [Bill] Clinton won the election and because Justice Ginsburg clearly had the intellectual ability and integrity to serve on the court, she was confirmed. — Sam Brownback

What I find is most people have a civics book understanding for how Congress works and how a bill moves. — Sam Brownback

None of us takes amending the Constitution lightly. The plain fact is this amendment has been exhaustively studied and it really is time to act. — Sam Brownback

The court's injected itself in the definition of marriage, deciding whether or not human life is worth protecting, permitting government to transfer private property from one person to another, even interpreting the Constitution on the basis of foreign and international laws. — Sam Brownback

We are at our best when we help the weakest. The weak make us strong. — Sam Brownback

I always think that the party that offers the most hope and ideas for the future is the party that wins. — Sam Brownback

It may seem ironic that the judicial branch preserves its legitimacy through refraining from action on political questions. That concept was put forward best by Justice [Felix] Frankfurter, appointed by President [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt. — Sam Brownback

I've been around the government system and believe me it's built to spend. You've got to change the system, otherwise it's like asking a cultivator to do what a combine does, it just doesn't fit, it won't get it done. You've got to change the system. — Sam Brownback

I think the next president needs to lead on cultural issues and experience, particularly on foreign policy. — Sam Brownback

I do think there's a lot more we can do on the life agenda. — Sam Brownback

[Jane] Roe has made it not only possible, but has found it constitutional to kill a whole class of people, simply because of their genetic make-up. — Sam Brownback

It is far easier to get divorced from somebody you've been married to for 10 years and have three children by than to fire somebody that's worked for you for one year. — Sam Brownback

In recent years, even as the court has become an increasingly political body, the Senate is not focused on preserving any perceived ideological balance when Democrat presidents have appointed people to the court. — Sam Brownback

I believe, assume the power to decide more political than legal issues in nature, the people naturally focus less on the law and more on the lawyers that are chosen really to administer the law. — Sam Brownback

This is a bipartisan effort. This is just good common sense. This is where the public wants us to go. They want us to not be so dependent on foreign oil. — Sam Brownback

As I noted to my colleagues in the Roberts' hearings, in a year between 80 percent to 90 percent of the children in America diagnosed with Down's Syndrome will be killed in the womb simply because they have a positive genetic test which can be wrong, and is often wrong, but they would have a positive genetic test for Down's Syndrome and they will be killed.America is poorer because of such a policy. — Sam Brownback

Let's create a legal system that can work. — Sam Brownback

[Felix Frankfurter] said courts are not representative bodies. They're not designed to be a good reflex of a democratic society. Their judgment is best informed and, therefore, most dependable within narrow limits. — Sam Brownback

I really believe, in my heart and soul, that if we would rebuild and strengthen the family structure in the country, you'd start to really deal with a number of the most difficult problems we're having in the country today, in poverty, education, and in crime, but we've broken the family structure up. — Sam Brownback

Most Americans want judges who will stick to interpreting the law rather than making it. — Sam Brownback

I want to note that, historically, the make-up of the court has changed just as elected branches have change. — Sam Brownback

I think we just need to stick to our knitting on the topics and the subjects the American people care about. — Sam Brownback

The people believed that while the courts would be independent, they would defer to the political branches on policy issues. — Sam Brownback

If you get married, you lose all your benefits. That's insane! We should give people bonuses for getting married, and sending signals and talking about it to the society. — Sam Brownback

Common sense should tell us that positively reinforcing sadistic behavior, as these games do, cannot be good for our children,. — Sam Brownback

As we consider the fast pace of scientific and technological progress in our modern world, we must not lose our moral compass and give way to 'free market eugenics'. — Sam Brownback

Politics are important but your soul lasts forever. So, you know, you make ... decisions on what you think is right or wrong and then you just go forward. — Sam Brownback

To kill [children in the womb] makes us all the poorer, insensitive, calloused and jaded. — Sam Brownback

Everybody will say that they're not opposed to immigration; they're opposed to illegal immigration. That's what I'm saying. — Sam Brownback

I went to a number of foreign countries, and during whenever I went, I would try to go to an orphanage or a home for children. And I was seeing thousands of kids around the world that needed homes. — Sam Brownback

The next president needs to know foreign policy and not learn it on the job. — Sam Brownback

I believe you [Samuel Alito] and others would look and say that the role of the courts is limited and it's not to decide political matters. — Sam Brownback

I believe that the core battle of our day is the battle to defend the inherent dignity of each and every person, the inherent beauty of each and every soul to be respected and treated as beautiful, unique, and sacred child of a loving God. No matter where they are, no matter what they look like, no matter what their status, each is noble and should be treated as such. The beauty of the individual is truth and we know it in our hearts. — Sam Brownback

Today, as we look back on the history of our nation and take note of how far we have come as a people, we are reminded that we owe a great debt to those who fought valiantly for the freedoms that we easily take for granted. — Sam Brownback

I'd pull my little brother on our motorcycle on an inner tube behind it. We would go fishing, we would hunt some, growing up. — Sam Brownback

You can look at founding father Alexander Hamilton nevertheless assuring - assuring - the countrymen in Federalist 78 that the role of the federal courts under the proposed Constitution would be limited. — Sam Brownback

The Supreme Court has also issued and never reversed a number of decisions that are repugnant to the Constitution's vision of human dignity and equality. — Sam Brownback