“Every banana republic in the world has a bill of rights...The bill of rights of the former evil empire, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was much better than ours...We guarantee freedom of speech and of the press. Big deal. They guaranteed freedom of speech, of the press, of street demonstrations and protests, and anyone who is caught trying to suppress criticism of the government will be called to account. Whoa, that is wonderful stuff!”
“Of course, it's just words on paper, what our framers would have called a ‘parchment guarantee.’ ”
-- Antonin Scalia, Senate Judiciary Committee in October 2011