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

Justice Scalia and I served together on the D.C. Circuit. So his votes are not surprising to me. What I like about him is that he’s very funny and very smart.

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

Whoever has witnessed another’s ideal becomes his inexorable judge and as it were his evil conscience.

There is no person in this room whose basic rights are not involved in any successful defiance to the carrying out of court orders.

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

The law is reason, free from passion.

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

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

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.

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art.

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

Law is always better than war.

The best interpreter of the law is custom.

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

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.

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.

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.

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.

Judge: a law student who marks his own examination-papers.

The place of justice is a hallowed place.

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

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.

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

Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office.

What people call impartiality may simply mean indifference, and what people call partiality may simply mean mental activity.

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.

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.

A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

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

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

More law, less justice.

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

I cannot pretend to be impartial about the colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.

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

Law, without force, is impotent.

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

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

No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.

The greatest thing in family life is to take a hint when a hint is intended-and not to take a hint when a hint isn’t intended.

I get very little sleep when the court is sitting.

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

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.

Law is mind without reason.

I would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in 2012.

Justice is what is established; and thus all our established laws will necessarily be regarded as just without examination, since they are established.

Laws, like houses, lean on one another.

You’re innocent until proven guilty.

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

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.

‚Do you spell it with a ‚V‘ or a ‚W‘?‘ inquired the judge. ‚That depends upon the taste and fancy of the speller, my Lord‘.

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

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

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.

The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.

The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.

We shouldn’t have to be burdened with all the technicalities that come up from time to time with shrewd, smart lawyers interpreting what the laws or what the Constitution may or may not say.

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.