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.

It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society.

All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they have no power over the substance of original justice.

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

Let us remember we are all part of one American family. We are united in common values, and that includes belief in equality under the law, basic respect for public order, and the right of peaceful protest.

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

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

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.

Make crime pay. Become a lawyer.

I love crime, I love mysteries, and I love ghosts.

I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, you begin making exceptions to it, where will you stop? If one man says it does not mean a Negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man?

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.

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

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.

As abhorrent as some of this content can be, I do think that it gets down to this principle of giving people a voice.

Retaliation is related to nature and instinct, not to law. Law, by definition, cannot obey the same rules as nature.

If you want to deal with an epidemic – crime or health – the smartest and most effective and cheapest way to deal with it is prevention first.

Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

God’s first line of defense – and offense – for every situation is prayer.

I think we all change each other’s paths. I don’t know which law idea that is in physics, but I don’t think any of us can live without affecting one another.

No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it.

I might talk about killing people, but that doesn’t mean I do it.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.

The intersection of law, politics, and technology is going to force a lot of good thinking.

The safety of the people shall be the highest law.

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

Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.

The biggest crime in England is to rise above your station. It’s fine to be a pop star. ‚Oh, it’s great, lots of fun, aren’t they sweet, these pop stars! But to think you have anything to say about how the world should work? What arrogance!‘

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.

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

The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.

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.

I think the running game is very important to every offense. Being balanced is extremely important. There’s times where you have to throw the ball. You could be down late in the game, you need to come back; you have to be able to pass it when they know you’re passing it.

Prosperity is the best protector of principle.

The principle of all successful effort is to try to do not what is absolutely the best, but what is easily within our power, and suited for our temperament and condition.

Laws, like houses, lean on one another.

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

The good of the people is the greatest law.

When you are spiritually connected, you are not looking for occasions to be offended, and you are not judging and labeling others. You are in a state of grace in which you know you are connected to God and thus free from the effects of anyone or anything external to yourself.

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

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.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.

To live outside the law, you must be honest.

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.

One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.

I’ve analyzed the best I can… and I have not found an impeachable offense, and therefore resignation is not an acceptable course.

Due process should matter.

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.

No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.

Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.

If the law is upheld only by government officials, then all law is at an end.

Our society strives to avoid any possibility of offending anyone – except God.

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

A precedent embalms a principle.

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.

I don’t know the law, the kind of law of quantity and quality, but I think the opportunity of people being able to express themselves and to have the means of production is a great thing. It’s also changing how we’re telling stories.

I had nearly finished school because I was making effort not that bad on that. But there was a law in Germany after the war. You could not make your final examination before 18, so lots of people who were late because of the way had to do it first.

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.

Taste cannot be controlled by law.

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.