Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) took to the floor of the US Senate today to praise Justice Antonin Scalia's "dogged commitment to the fundamental principles of liberty." Twenty years ago today, Scalia was appointed an associate justice by President Ronald Reagan, and has consistently served with the philosophy that we have a "government of laws, not of men." Hatch singled out Scalia as a firm proponent of originalism and praised his determination to preserve the liberties guaranteed by our Founding Fathers.

Hatch's comments ring especially true in a day when judicial activism is becoming increasingly common in our democracy. It is perhaps best captured in an oft-used quote of Scalia's own: "Judges are no better suited to govern than anyone else."

Highlights of Hatch's speech:

• "Many people, conservatives as well as liberals, applaud or criticize the Supreme Court when it amends the Constitution, depending on whether they like the amendments. Yet I ask my fellow citizens, both conservatives and liberals: would you rather have your liberty secured by moral reflections and personal impressions or enduring mandates and impersonal rules of law? If you cede to judges the power to make law when you support the law they make, what will you say when judges -- and they will -- make law you oppose?"
• "The inherent power of the principles on which Justice Scalia stands, propelled by the way in which he asserts and defends them, force us confront, whether we like it or not, the issues most basic to a system of self-government based on the rule of law."
• "When he [Scalia] enrages, he also engages. If Justice Scalia had no impact, he would get no attention. Even the commentators that call him a bully, or worse, feel they have to call him something. His harshest critics know they cannot ignore him. Scholars or political activists can no longer simply describe the political goods they want judges to deliver; they must defend why judges have the authority to deliver those goods. "
• "Justice Antonin Scalia has made our liberty more secure, our citizenry and leaders more responsible, and given us all plenty to ponder, and chuckle about, along the way."

(Full text of speech available by clicking the link above.)