H. L. Mencken Quotes About Judging

• Civilization, in fact, grows more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. Wars are no longer waged by the will of superior men, capable of judging dispassionately and intelligently the causes behind them and the effects flowing out of them. The are now begun by first throwing a mob into a panic; they are ended only when it has spent its ferine fury.

  H. L. Mencken

  War, Men, Civilization

• Probably the worst thing that has happened in America in my time is the decay of confidence in the courts. No one can be sure any more that in a given case they will uphold the plainest mandate of the Constitution. On the contrary, everyone begins to be more or less convinced in advance that they won't. Judges are chosen not because they know the Constitution and are in favor of it, but precisely because they appear to be against it.

  H. L. Mencken

  America, Judging, Decay

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.254, Knopf

• A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Law, Justice

• Jury - A group of 12 people, who, having lied to the judge about their health, hearing, and business engagements, have failed to fool him.

  H. L. Mencken

  People, Judging, Groups

• The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Laughter, Humorous

  A Little Book in C Major ch. 4 (1916)

• But I wonder where we will land if trial judges begin deciding that the fact that a man has committed an atrocious crime is proof sufficient that he is not responsible for his acts.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Land, Judging

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