Quotes About Law

The books must be law books and it's characteristic of this judicial system that a man is condemned not only when he's innocent but also in ignorance.

In practice, the ocean is the world's wildest place because of both its fearsome natural danger and how easy it is out there to slip from the boundaries of law and civilization that seem so firm ashore.

The argument that gay marriage doesn't affect straight marriages is a ridiculous red herring: Gay marriage affects society and law in dramatic ways. Religious groups will come under direct assault as federal and state governments move to strip them of their non-profit statuses if they refuse to perform gay marriages.

The public has every right to see Robert S. Mueller III's conclusions. Absolutely nothing in the law or the regulations prevents the report from becoming public. Indeed, the relevant sources of law give Attorney General P. William Barr all the latitude in the world to make it public.

I come from a law enforcement family. My grandfather, William J. Comey, was a police officer. Pop Comey is one of my heroes. I have a picture of him on my wall in my office at the FBI, reminding me of the legacy I've inherited and that I must honor.

I clerked for a judge, William Norris, on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals right after law school and then for Justice O'Connor the next year.

If you're an illegal alien in Prince William County, I'd get out.

In a democratic society, nothing will ever receive unanimous support. The way to deal with this is to empower elected governments and ensure that they answer to voters, not to give a veto to those who are the loudest or most willing to protest or break the law.

We need a president who is willing to uphold the law.

What matters is that there is somewhere for those who are troubled, threatened or afraid to turn to in their darkest hour. What matters is that there are those who are willing and able to use the law as an instrument of inclusion, of protection, and of freedom.

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

I think that one of the most fundamental responsibilities is to give testimony in a court of law, to give it honestly and willingly.

I think judicial temperament is a willingness to step back from your own committed views of the correct jurisprudential approach and evaluate those views in terms of your role as a judge. It's the difference between being a judge and being a law professor.

Any successful nominee should possess both the temperament to interpret the law and the wisdom to do so fairly. The next Supreme Court Justice should have a record of protecting individual rights and a strong willingness to put aside any political agenda.

Before 9/11 there were weak procedures, willingness, and mechanisms for communicating among agencies for foreign intelligence and the FBI with its focus on law enforcement. The domestic-vs.-foreign barrier has been solved by the reforms after 9/11 that established the DNI.

There is no question that Darren Wilson caused the death of Michael Brown by shooting him, but the inquiry does not end there. The law authorizes a law enforcement officer to use deadly force in certain situations. The law allows all people to use deadly force to defend themselves in certain situations.

I say you must not win an unjust case by oaths.

To win this war, we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern.

It is one of the most beautiful things about our country that just one individual, so long as he or she has the law on their side, can take on the most powerful institutions or people in the land and win.

Nothing is so unproductive as the law. It is expensive whether you win or lose.

My rookie year, I bought a new Range Rover, and, knowing what I know about traffic stops in this country, I made damn sure that the tint on the windows was legal. Somehow, though... I just kept getting pulled over for my tint.

The FCC's job is not to put a finger in the wind and decide which way the winds are blowing; it's to look at the facts and make a sober judgment based on what the law is.

Law is vulnerable to the winds of intellectual or moral fashion, which it then validates as the commands of our most basic concept.

Since the '86 amnesty, the number of illegal immigrants has quadrupled. That should teach Congress a very important lesson: Amnesty 'bends' the rule of law. And bending the rule of law to reach a 'comprehensive' deal winds up provoking wholesale breaking of the law.