1960s, First court statement (1962)
Context: In its proper meaning equality before the law means the right to participate in the making of the laws by which one is governed, a constitution which guarantees democratic rights to all sections of the population, the right to approach the court for protection or relief in the case of the violation of rights guaranteed in the constitution, and the right to take part in the administration of justice as judges, magistrates, attorneys-general, law advisers and similar positions.
In the absence of these safeguards the phrase 'equality before the law', in so far as it is intended to apply to us, is meaningless and misleading. All the rights and privileges to which I have referred are monopolized by whites, and we enjoy none of them. The white man makes all the laws, he drags us before his courts and accuses us, and he sits in judgement over us.
“The government officials, along with the courtiers and the press, … insist that congressional and judicial oversight, the right to privacy, the rule of law, the freedom of the press, the right to express dissent remains inviolate. They use the old words and old phrases, old laws and old constitutional guarantees, to give our corporate totalitarianism a democratic veneer.”
34:44
“ Our Only Hope Will Come Through Rebellion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOlg_2qAbUA” (2014)
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Chris Hedges 81
American journalist 1956Related quotes
Industrialism and Cultural Values p. 138.
The Bias of Communication (1951)
“In old days men had the rack. Now they have the press.”
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Source: An Ideal Husband
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter VI, Karl Marx, p. 137
The Pursuit of Justice http://books.google.com/books?id=o3mHAAAAMAAJ&q="Every+society+gets+the+kind+of+criminal+it+deserves+What+is+equally+true+is+that+every+community+gets+the+kind+of+law+enforcement+it+insists+on" pt. 3, "Eradicating Free Enterprise in Organized Crime," (1964)
Alexander Lacassange https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Lacassagne Attribution of original quote
“Old rights must remain: it would be very unreasonable if it should be otherwise.”
Mayor, &c. of Colchester v. Seaber (1765), 3 Burr. Part IV. 1872.
“Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die,
But leave us still our old nobility.”
England's Trust, part iii, line 227, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Context: No: by the names inscribed in History's page,
Names that are England's noblest heritage,
Names that shall live for yet unnumbered years
Shrined in our hearts with Cressy and Poictiers;
Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die,
But leave us still our old nobility.