None of my peers avoided prison. None of ‚em.

The 14th Amendment was recognized right away to be problematic. The concept of person was both too narrow and too broad, and the courts went to work to overcome both of those flaws.

Free speech has been used by the Supreme Court to give immense power to the wealthiest members of our society.

And whether you’re an honest man, or whether you’re a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.

It is a fundamental principle of criminal law that an imputed offense must correspond exactly to the type of crime described by law. If no law applies exactly to the point in question, then there is no offense.

One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.

The place of justice is a hallowed place.

Laws should be interpreted in a liberal sense so that their intention may be preserved.

On one of my last days at school, the headmaster said I would either end up in prison or become a millionaire. That was quite a startling prediction, but in some respects, he was right on both counts!

When you’re in prison, you want to know that you were thought about.

The White House is the finest prison in the world.

I never sympathise with the accused unless there’s a chance the accused is not guilty, but I certainly don’t ever sympathise with the criminal.

A judge sworn to decide impartially can offer no forecasts, no hints, for that would show not only disregard for the specifics of the particular case, it would display disdain for the entire judicial process.

The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.

I hope that a move toward clemency with Judge Afiuni would be a step towards the importance of maintaining a properly functioning justice system.

Laws, like houses, lean on one another.

I do hope that some of my dissents will one day be the law.

No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.

The one great principle of English law is to make business for itself.

For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium.

When the prison doors are opened, the real dragon will fly out.

I really don’t pay attention to the outside world when I’m incarcerated, because being in prison is like being in a different world. So I don’t pay attention to what’s going on outside of jail, because it’s all beyond my control.

Nobody is above the law. Imagine if there allegations against Modi and he is the Prime Minister. Should the case not be pursued just because he has become the PM. It should not be so that it should be stopped. I am not above the law.

To know the laws is not to memorize their letter but to grasp their full force and meaning.

It’s cool to be recognised by your peers.

Don’t hire a prison consultant.

On the whole, we think of our consumers – other judges, lawyers, the public. The law that the Supreme Court establishes is the law that they must live by, so all things considered, it’s better to have it clearer than confusing.

The jury consist of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.

The law is reason, free from passion.

Just because you’ve seen ‚My Cousin Vinny‘ doesn’t qualify you to be a federal judge.

You don’t send people to prison on the basis of what other people imagine, or on the basis of media sound bites like ‚shooting an unarmed child,‘ when that ‚child‘ was beating him bloody.

Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.

How accurately can the law fix the crime? There has to be a mechanism for very fast action. The law is like this: catch them and punish them.

In my country we go to prison first and then become President.

Law, without force, is impotent.

Prison was the best thing that ever happened to me.

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

How does a nice Catholic girl end up going to prison for a year? It’s crazy. I’ve made mistakes. I have to pay for those mistakes.

The once all-powerful ruler of Iraq was found in a hole, and now sits in a prison cell.

The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.

Arizona presents no specific reason for excepting capital defendants from the constitutional protections extended to defendants generally, and none is readily apparent.

I strongly believe that for serious and violent criminals, we must absolutely hold them accountable for their crimes and send them to prison.

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

Generally speaking, the public appetite for criminal justice policy is just tough talk.

The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.

I understood that with the swipe of my pen as a prosecutor, I would have the decision in my pen to make a decision about someone’s life.

If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people – including me – would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.

I get very little sleep when the court is sitting.

I think most defense attorneys know, to some extent, their clients are guilty.

Justice is expensive in America. There are no Free Passes… You might want to remember this, the next time you get careless and blow off a few Parking Tickets. They will come back to haunt you the next time you see a Cop car in your rear-view mirror.

You’re innocent until proven guilty.

When police or prosecutors conceal significant exculpatory or impeaching material, we hold, it is ordinarily incumbent on the state to set the record straight.

‚Getting smart on crime‘ does not mean reducing sentences or punishments for crimes.

With the advent of DNA, we know that people have been convicted and sentenced to death who later proved not to be guilty of the crime.

Most states in the union where the death penalty is theoretically on the books don’t have executions.

TV’s a big deal in prison. A big deal. People watch it nonstop.

More law, less justice.

No one can say, ‚I have dropped out – I am no longer in the system.‘ When you’re in prison, you’re even closer to the system: you feel it more, and you might be in there for whatever reason. You don’t transform the system as an absolute thing.