Joan Larsen Quotes

When I first met Antonin Scalia, I was a small child with one brown ponytail atop my head. Which is odd, because I was a full-grown woman, and my hair was short and blond. Still, sitting on the black leather sofa in his chambers, I remember shrinking.

– Joan Larsen

I believe in enforcing the laws as written by the Legislature, as signed by the governor.

– Joan Larsen

I am often asked what it was like to be a woman clerking for Justice Scalia. ‘Much like being a man clerking for him’ is my easy answer. Justice Scalia believed in one simple principle: That law came to the court as an ‘is,’ not an ‘ought.’

– Joan Larsen

Judges should interpret the laws according to what they say, not according to what the judges wish they would say. Judges are supposed to interpret the laws; they are not supposed to make them.

– Joan Larsen

Denying the president a constitutional voice is the real threat to our system of separated powers.

– Joan Larsen

We have differing views on law, politics and religion. But I have yet to meet a Scalia clerk who was not grateful to the man who taught us, shaped us, and launched us into our lives in the law. Justice Scalia’s passing leaves a giant void in the court and in the intellectual discourse over the law.

– Joan Larsen

The citizens of Michigan elect the justices to resolve the complex disputes that reach the Supreme Court, and we must not shrink from that duty.

– Joan Larsen