For Justice Antonin Scalia, cases before the U.S. Supreme Court involving the Bill of Rights are important, but they aren’t the ones “I live or die for.” That distinction, he said in a speech over the weekend, is reserved for cases that test the structure of the U.S. government, from separation of powers to federalism.

Even dictatorships can have a bill of rights written down, he said, but the structure of government is what ensures that laws are “not just words on paper.”