Quotes About Justice

The gap in our economy is between what we have and what we think we ought to have — and that is a moral problem, not an economic one.

t was once famously said that it is as well that wars are so ruinously expensive, else we would never stop fighting them. However well said, it seems also to be endlessly forgotten that, while there may be just wars and unjust wars, there are never any cheap wars.

Revenge is the best revenge.

Philosophers hold liberty and justice to be universal and necessary concepts because they know of no societies other than those founded on private property.

Since thou and those who died with thee for rightHave died, the Present teaches, but in vain!

Unanimous. All nine justices. Cops need a warrant to search your cell phone." "Surprising outcome, don't you think?" "Not at all. The justices don't have bags of cocaine in the trunks of their cars, so the drug seizure cases usually go the government's way. But every justice has a cell phone.

but I'm a trial lawyer, damn it. In the legal system, not everything is black-and-white. I make my living in the gray.

Until I come up with something better, the hammer defense." "Huh?" "Classic legal strategy, Nash. If the law is on your side, hammer the law. If the facts are on your side, hammer the facts. If neither is on your side, hammer the table.

A prosecutor is a stolid carpenter who patiently hammers his wood into place as he builds a house, one board at a time. A defense lawyer is a nihilistic vandal who finds the support beam and pulls down the house before it's complete.

Philosophers and poets may be truth seekers. Lawyers only want to win.

When I was a kid, Granny filled a bushel basket with her do's and don'ts. She taught me never to start a fight but to know how to end one. To be wary of the rich and powerful. And to go through life doing the least damage possible. Thanks to her, I favor the underdog. I root against the Yankees, the Lakers, and the Patriots. If Germany invaded Poland—again—I'd take the points and go with the Poles.

Would you want to be judged by people too stupid to get out of jury duty?

Cited Riley versus California." "That's my girl! Cocounsel, I mean. Jeez, that case came down just in time! Unanimous. All nine justices. Cops need a warrant to search your cell phone.

I'm a grinder. I am not called to speak at fancy conventions in five-star hotels. The governor has not offered me black robes and elevated me to the bench. I am not interviewed by CNN to comment on the latest trial of the century. And I am not rich.

You can't trust juries. Take it from me." "You don't believe in the system, that it, Luber?" "Would you want to be judged by people too stupid to get out of jury duty?

He said he didn't need a lawyer because he was innocent." I tried not to grimace, so I just ground my teeth. When you're innocent, you really need a lawyer because of police and prosecution foul-ups. To say nothing of the average citizen's tendency to get scared and confused when being questioned by cops.

The federal government is a ponderous battleship, weighed down by its own armor and slow to change course. But when it chooses to marshal its might against an individual, the government is a lean, mean, conviction machine. Meanwhile, the defendant's lawyer is a loinclothed Roman gladiator protected by a wooden shield, leather shin guards, and prayers to the god Jupiter. The Constitution promises due process but not a fair fight.

Sometimes, Gerald, people break the law so clearly you can hear it crack like a tree branch snapped in two. But other times, like a baker twisting a roll of dough into a pretzel, you only bend the law. You don't tear it. You don't break it. You end up with something better than the ingredients you started with. And the final result is beautiful to behold.

You know the three elements of every prosecution, don't you?" "Sure. Perjury, coercion, and pure dumb luck.

As much as we prize our commitment to the individual and pay lip service to the presumption of innocence, it's the government's courthouse, the government's prosecutor, and the government's judge. Every time you go to trial, you are the Miami Dolphins playing an away game against the Patriots in a January blizzard.

There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy." —Ambrose Bierce

jurors can't help themselves. They're swayed by their life experiences as much as the evidence and the law. Still, with all my bellyaching, here's the strange thing. Juries usually get it right!

You leave a little bit of yourself behind in every case," Ray Pincher said. "Not that you want to, but that the practice of law demands it." "True enough," I said. "There's a lot of me smeared on a lot of courtroom floors.

Federal judges are kings and queens. They are appointed for life. No messy elections, no grubbing for lawyers' campaign contributions. They sit on thrones above the lowly members of their kingdom and are served by a royal retinue of law clerks, judicial assistants, court clerks, jury clerks, courtroom deputies, administrators, and, for all I know, court jesters.