DEATH PENALTY

"The issue for me with respect to the death penalty is that the Supreme Court, since Gregg, has determined that the death penalty is constitutional under certain situations. I have rejected challenges to the federal law and its application in the one case I handled as a District Court judge, but it's a reflection of what my views are on the law."

GUNS

"The Supreme Court did hold that there is in the Second Amendment an individual right to bear arms. And that is its holding, and that is the court's decision. I fully accept that."

ABORTION

"The court's decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey reaffirmed the core holding of Roe. That is the precedent of the court and settled in terms of the holding of the court." A constitutional requirement for a health exception to abortion restrictions "has been a part of the court's jurisprudence and a part of its precedents. Those precedents must be given deference in any situation that arises before the court."

FOREIGN LAW

"American law does not permit the use of foreign law or international law to interpret the Constitution. ... The question of use of foreign law, then, is different than considering the ideas that it may, on an academic level, provide."

PROPERTY RIGHTS

The Kelo v. New London case, in which the Supreme Court decided that the government can take property for private development rather than a traditional public use such as schools and roads "is now a precedent of the court. I must follow it. I am bound by a circuit -- a Supreme Court decision, as a Second Circuit judge. ... The question of the reach of Kelo has to be examined in the context of each situation."

EXECUTIVE POWER

"In all of the situations, once you've looked at what Congress has done or not done, you then are directed to look at what the president's powers may be under the Constitution minus whatever powers Congress has in that area. So the whole exercise is really, in terms of Congress and the executive, an exercise of the two working together. And in fact, that's the basic structure of our system of government. That's why the Congress makes the laws; the president can veto them, but he can't make them."

NEW YORK TIMES