A biography for Benjamin Witteshasn’t been written yet.
“In general, liberals fear conservative judges far too much. In almost all areas, in fact, they dramatically overstate the stakes.”
“I was much less offended than others were by the CIA's interrogations in the years after September 11.”
“I'm positively enthusiastic about American surveillance policies.”
“One effect of Roe was to mobilize a permanent constituency for criminalizing abortion - a constituency that has driven much of the southern realignment toward conservatism.”
“We should never again have an attorney general capable of saying virtually nothing as the law of major intelligence programs and the integrity of his department's work in overseeing these programs are assailed over a protracted period of time.”
“I normally try to ignore presidential tweets.”
“Drosnin's 'The Bible Code' would hardly be worth mentioning were it not such a smash hit.”
“There is no doubt in my mind that Article II limits to a considerable degree the application of the obstruction statutes to the president when he is acting in his capacity as chief law-enforcement officer of the country.”
“Liberals have been overselling the threat to reproductive rights for decades.”
“The nature of constitutional delegations of power is that they entitle the empowered official to do certain things that other people can't do.”
“The reason the FISA standard is constitutional is that the government is supposed to use FISA surveillance not for criminal investigations but for counterintelligence probes pursued under the president's authority to conduct foreign policy.”
“It is possible for great nations to rot from within.”
“I'm an unabashed apologist for strong national-security authority. That's why I might be more alarmed by Trump.”
“Full disclosure: James Comey is a friend. I won't pretend to neutrality about him. He is a highly honorable and decent person, and I have no doubt that he made the many judgments for which people loathe him in good faith.”
“In 1999 and 2000, when I was a young editorial writer at the 'Post', the 'Post' won the public service medal two years running.”
“While I oppose the death penalty as a policy matter, in a legal culture in which we reserve the right to execute people for relatively routine street crimes, it seems quite absurd for the justice system to get squeamish about executing the operational masterminds of Sept. 11.”
“Back when the natural sciences, philosophy, and theology were one great intellectual hodgepodge, proving the existence of God was a relatively commonplace exercise. To the modern mind, however, science and religion talk past each other.”
“National security is not just things that go boom. It is not just terrorists and foreign adversaries.”
“Eric Holder is a decent man.”
“It might seem perverse for honestly religious people to group their faiths with those of the sadists and megalomaniacs who run most cults, but a growing number are doing just that.”