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Legal writing14 quotes
It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is... If two laws conflict with each other, the Courts must decide on the operation of each... This is of the very essence of judicial duty. — John Marshall · 1803They are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word "citizens" in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. — Roger B. Taney · 1857The king, moreover, is not only incapable of doing wrong, but even of thinking wrong: he can never mean to do an improper thing: in him is no folly or weakness. — William Blackstone · 1765The house of everyone is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence, as for his repose — Edward Coke · 1603To establish a defence on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong. — Nicholas Conyngham Tindal · 1843Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. — John Marshall Harlan · 1896All 14 quotes →Political literature8 quotes
Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered. — Aristotle · 350 BCThere are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963The interpretation of the laws is the proper and peculiar province of the courts. — Alexander Hamilton · 1788A constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as a fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning, as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body. If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between the two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of course, to be preferred; or, in other words, the Constitution ought to be preferred to the statute, the intention of the people to the intention of their agents. — Alexander Hamilton · 1788The relative freedom which we enjoy depends of public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them. — George Orwell · 1945Here the great art lies, to discern in what the law is to bid restraint and punishment, and in what things persuasion only is to work. — John Milton · 1644All 8 quotes →Political speech6 quotes
Laws are silent in time of war. — Cicero · 52 BCI know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1869One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights. Minorities have a right to appeal to the Constitution as a shield against such oppression. — James K. Polk · 1845We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is. — Charles Evans Hughes · 1907The intention of the lawgiver is the law. — Abraham Lincoln · 1861Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny. — Edmund Burke · 1780Philosophical literature3 quotes
Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered. — Aristotle · 350 BCMercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent. — Adam Smith · 1759An advocate, by the sacred duty which he owes his client, knows, in the discharge of that office, but one person in the world, that client and none other. To save that client... Is the highest and most unquestioned of his duties; And he must not regard the alarm, the suffering, the torment, the destruction which he may bring upon any other. Nay... He must go on reckless of the consequences, if his fate, it should unhappily be, to involve his country in confusion for his client's protection. — Henry Peter Brougham · 1820Dissenting opinion2 quotes
Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. — John Marshall Harlan · 1896General propositions do not decide concrete cases. The decision will depend on a judgement or intuition more subtle than any articulate major premise. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1905Religious literature2 quotes
Whoever hath an absolute authority to interpret any written, or spoken laws; it is He, who is truly the Law-giver to all intents and purposes, and not the Person who first wrote, or spoke them. — Benjamin Hoadly · 1717Where there is no law there is no transgression. — Apostle Paul · 56Historical literature1 quote
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind. — Edward Gibbon · 1776Political writing1 quote
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched... Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind... We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. — Thomas Jefferson · 1816Travel writing1 quote
A lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it honestly. The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the judge. — Samuel Johnson · 1773