The Week in Quotes (July 8 – 14)

Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes.

Religious-right leader Franklin Graham repeatedly reminded voters in 2016. In 2018, with the retirement of Justice Kennedy, he’s getting his payback from President Trump.

“The most important issue of this election is the Supreme Court.”

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Mary Ziegler, a professor at the Florida State University College of Law, on U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement.

“The justices could effectively reverse Roe without saying so, using the very undue-burden standard that Kennedy helped develop. The Court clarified somewhat the meaning of the standard in 2016, concluding that judges should weigh both the benefits and burdens of abortion regulations. But the standard is still quite vague, and much depends on the facts of individual cases. Without formally overturning Roe, the justices could uphold most or all abortion regulations that come before the Court.”

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Mariah Montgomery, campaign director for the Partnership for Working Families, on Amazon’s continued sale of merchandise displaying symbols of white supremacy.

“It’s clear that Amazon is bringing in money by propping up these hate organizations and allowing them to spread these messages in a moment of rising white nationalism and violence.”

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John Fea, a historian at Messiah College, an evangelical institution also in Pennsylvania, saying he thinks the lack of evangelicals on the U.S. Supreme Court has to do with “the direction that the evangelical movement has taken in America.”

“Evangelicals are primarily concerned with preaching the gospel, with evangelism, with social justice ministries, service. And they have not always valued the life of the mind. So as a result, you have a lot of evangelicals doing great things, but they’re not necessarily pursuing intellectual vocations – the liberal arts, philosophy, logic, history these kinds of things – because they’re out trying to win people to Christ.”

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Brett Kavanaugh, who was selected as President Trump’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, in his dissent from a ruling of the DC Circuit last October that an undocumented immigrant teen in detention was entitled to seek an abortion.

“[T]he government has permissible interests in favoring fetal life, protecting the best interests of a minor, and refraining from facilitating abortion.”

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The Austin American-Statesman, in an editorial criticizing Texas Republican leaders’ efforts to roll back and prevent paid sick leave laws.

“If the big state bureaucracy wants to shirk its responsibility to protect the public’s health and lower-wage workers, then at least get out of the way and let Austin and other cities do the job.”

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Pastor Paula White, senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Center, in Apopka, Florida, and faith advisor to President Trump, defending the administration’s policies on immigration.

“I think so many people have taken biblical scriptures out of context on this, to say stuff like, ‘Well, Jesus was a refugee. Yes, He did live in Egypt for three-and-a-half years. But it was not illegal. If He had broken the law then He would have been sinful and He would not have been our Messiah.”

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Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, announcing he was duped by comic actor Sacha Baron Cohen in his upcoming Showtime series, “Who Is America?”

“I am involved in several court cases presently to defend my honor and character against vicious false political attacks by liberals like Cohen. If Showtime airs a defamatory attack on my character, I may very well be involved in another. As for Mr. Cohen, whose art is trickery, deception, and dishonesty, Alabama does not respect cowards who exhibit such traits! It’s been a long time since I fought for my country in Vietnam. I’m ready to defend her again!”