Judicial Quotes - Page 2

• True freedom requires the rule of law and justice, and a judicial system in which the rights of some are not secured by the denial of rights to others.

  Jonathan Sacks

  Rights, Law, Justice

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• I regret that some on the extreme right have been so critical of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and have adamantly opposed the naming of a successor who shares her judicial philosophy and qualities. And their criticism actually reflects poorly upon them.

  Patrick Leahy

  Regret, Philosophy, Justice

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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• In our system of government, the judicial and legislative branches have different roles. Judges are not politicians. Judges must decide cases, not champion causes. Judges must settle legal disputes, not pursue agendas. Judges must interpret and apply the law, not make the law.

  Orrin Hatch

  Government, Law, Judging

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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• The notion that Congress can change the meaning given a constitutional provision by the Court is subversive of the function of judicial review; and it is not the less so because the Court promises to allow it only when the Constitution is moved to the left.

  Robert Bork

  Promise, Judicial Review, Constitution

  Robert H. Bork (2009). “The Tempting of America”, p.93, Simon and Schuster

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• Judicial activists are nothing short of radicals in robes--contemptuous of the rule of law, subverting the Constitution at will, and using their public trust to impose their policy preferences on society. In fact, no radical political movement has been more effective in undermining our system of government than the judiciary. And with each Supreme Court term, we hold our collective breath hoping the justices will do no further damage, knowing full well they will disappoint. Such is the nature of judicial tyranny.

  Mark Levin

  Law, Knowing, Government

  Mark R. Levin (2006). “Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America”, p.22, Regnery Publishing

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• Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Hate, Reality, Men

  Marcus Tullius Cicero, Edward William Sutton, Harris Rackham (1942). “Cicero, De Oratore: In Two Volumes”

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• If there is in this world a well-attested account, it is that of vampires. Nothing is lacking: official reports, affidavits of well-known people, of surgeons, of priests, of magistrates; the judicial proof is most complete. And with all that, who is there who believes in vampires?

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Believe, People, Vampire

  "The Social Contract". Book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762.

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• Human life is held in much higher esteem, and the taking of it, whether in private quarrel or by judicial procedure, is looked upon much more seriously than it was formerly.

  Elihu Root

  Chance, Life Is, Quarrels

  Elihu Root (1916). “Addresses on International Subjects”

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• It is hard to see Judge Roberts as a judicial activist who would place ideological purity or a particular agenda above or ahead the need for thoughtful legal reasoning.

  Ron Wyden

  Thoughtful, Judging, Agendas

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• For the highest exercise of judicial duty is to subordinate one's personal pulls and one's private views to the law of which we are all guaradians - those impersonal convictions that made a society a civilized community, and not the victims of personal rule.

  Felix Frankfurter

  Exercise, Views, Law

  "Mr. Justice Frankfurter: 'A Heritage for All Who Love the Law'". Tom C. Clark, "American Bar Association Journal", Volume 51, No. 4, April 1965.

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• Nothing in oratory is more important than to win for the orator the favour of his hearer, and to have the latter so affected as to be swayed by something resembling an impulse of the spirit impetu quodam animi or emotion perturbatione, rather than by judgment or deliberation. For men decide far more problems by hate, or love, or lust, or rage, or sorrow, or joy, or hope, or fear, or illusion, or some other inward emotion aliqua permotione mentis, than by reality or authority, or any legal standard, or judicial precedent or statute.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Hate, Winning, Reality

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• The indispensible judicial requisite is intellectual humility.

  Felix Frankfurter

  Humility, Intellectual, Intellectual Humility

  "American Federation of Labor (AFL) v. American Sash & Door Co., 335 U.S. 538". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. January 3, 1949.

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• To be effective, judicial administration must not be leaden-footed.

  Felix Frankfurter

  Administration

  "Cobbledick v. United States, 309 U.S. 323". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. February 26, 1940.

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• The greatest horrors in the history of mankind are not due to the ambition of the Napoleons or the vengeance of the Agamemnons, but to the doctrinaire philosophers. The theories of the sentimentalist Rousseau inspired the integrity of the passionless Robespierre. The cold-blooded calculations of Karl Marx led to the judicial and business-like operations of the Cheka.

  Aleister Crowley

  Integrity, Ambition, Principles

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• There was an ancient Roman lawyer, of great fame in the history of Roman jurisprudence, whom they called Cui Bono, from his having first introduced into judicial proceedings the argument, "What end or object could the party have had in the act with which he is accused."

  Edmund Burke

  Party, Law, Jurisprudence

  Edmund Burke's speech on the impeachment of Warren Hastings, May 30, 1794.

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• We will submit legislation to the United States Senate which will...authorize the Congress to undertake judicial review of those signing statements with the view to having the president's acts declared unconstitutional.

  Arlen Specter

  Views, President, United States

  «Bush meets with the Iraqi PM as some in Congress question alliance» by Mark Preston, www.cnn.com. July 26, 2006.

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• Anarchists generally make use if the word "State" to mean all the collection of institutions, political, legislative, judicial, military, financial, etc., by means of which management of their own affairs, the guidance of their personal conduct, and the care of ensuring their own safety are taken from the people and confided to certain individuals, and these, whether by usurpation or delegation, are invested with the right to make laws over and for all, and to constrain the public to respect them, making use of the collective force of the community to this end.

  Errico Malatesta

  Military, Taken, Mean

  "Anarchy". Pamphlet by Errico Malatesta, www.marxists.org. 1891.

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• It is of course true that any kind of judicial legislation is objectionable on the score of the limited interests which a Court can represent, yet there are wrongs which in fact legislatures cannot be brought to take an interest in, at least not until the Courts have acted.

  Learned Hand

  Facts, Kind, Legislation

  Letter to Louis D. Brandeis, January 22, 1919.

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• He has absolutely no judicial supervision of all of this [ invasions of privacy ]. So all in all, [Barack] Obama is a disaster.

  Nat Hentoff

  Invasion, Privacy, Disaster

  Source: annaz.blogspot.com

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• So the danger of conservative judicial activism has been averted for another year. Stay tuned.

  Michael Kinsley

  Years, Another Year, Conservative

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• Legislative enactments proceed from men carrying their views a long time back; while judicial decisions are made off hand.

  Aristotle

  Men, Views, Hands

  Aristotle (1857). “Treatise on Rhetoric: Literally Translated from the Greek”, p.4

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• But it is recognized that punishment for the abuse of the liberty accorded to the press is essential to the protection of the public, and that the common law rules that subject the libeler to responsibility for the public offense, as well as for the private injury, are not abolished by the protection extended in our constitutions. The law of criminal libel rests upon that secure foundation. There is also the conceded authority of courts to punish for contempt when publications directly tend to prevent the proper discharge of judicial functions.

  Charles Evans Hughes

  Responsibility, Law, Punishment

  "Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697". Judicial opinion, 1931.

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• Any judicial nominee who has said that the Constitution means what it says, not what judges would like it to mean, is going to be called an 'extremist.' That person will be said to be 'out of the mainstream.' But the mainstream is itself the problem.

  Thomas Sowell

  Mean, Judging, Constitution

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• The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.

  Eric Holder

  Guarantees, Constitution, Process

  Address at Northwestern University Law School, delivered 5 March 2012, Chicago, IL

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• I do not think that we should select judges based on a particular philosophy as opposed to temperament, commitment to judicial neutrality and commitment to other more constant values as to which there is general consensus.

  Anthony Kennedy

  Philosophy, Commitment, Thinking

  "Justice For Sale (Update)". "Bill Moyers Journal", billmoyers.com. February 19, 2010.

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