“It is often hard to secure unanimity about the borders of legislative power, but that is much easier than to decide how far a particular adjustment diverges from what the judges deem tolerable. On such issues experience has over and over again shown the difficulty of securing unanimity. This is disastrous because disunity cancels the impact of monolithic solidarity on which the authority of a bench of judges so largely depends.”

—  Learned Hand

The Bill Of Rights (1958), p. 72.
Extra-judicial writings

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It is often hard to secure unanimity about the borders of legislative power, but that is much easier than to decide how…" by Learned Hand?
Learned Hand photo
Learned Hand 56
American legal scholar, Court of Appeals judge 1872–1961

Related quotes

Charles Evans Hughes photo

“Time has shown how illusory are alliances of great powers so far as the maintenance of peace is concerned.
In considering the use of international force to secure peace, we are again brought to the fundamental necessity of common accord.”

Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948) American judge

The Pathway of Peace (1923)
Context: Time has shown how illusory are alliances of great powers so far as the maintenance of peace is concerned.
In considering the use of international force to secure peace, we are again brought to the fundamental necessity of common accord. If the feasibility of such a force be conceded for the purpose of maintaining adjudications of legal right, this is only because such an adjudication would proceed upon principles commonly accepted, and thus forming part of international law, and upon the common agreement to respect the decision of an impartial tribunal in the application of such principles. This is a limited field where force is rarely needed and where the sanctions of public opinion and the demands of national honor are generally quite sufficient to bring about acquiescence in judicial awards. But in the field of conflicting national policies, and what are deemed essential interests, when the smoldering fires of old grievances have been fanned into a flame by a passionate sense of immediate injury, or the imagination of peoples is dominated by apprehension of present danger to national safety, or by what is believed to be an assault upon national honor, what force is to control the outbreak? Great powers agreeing among themselves may indeed hold small powers in check. But who will hold great powers in check when great powers disagree?.

Hillary Clinton photo
Arthur Kekewich photo

“It was sometimes easier to read the future from the entrails of a cat than get a fix on what a judge was thinking, and Torres-Jones was particularly hard to get a handle on.”

Michael Nava (1954) American writer

Source: Henry Rios series of novels, The Death of Friends (1996), p.189

Stanley Baldwin photo
Ignatius Ayau Kaigama photo

“We keep appealing to the authorities to do what is needed, and we pray to God because He is the optimal security that we have. We can’t depend on human security!”

Ignatius Ayau Kaigama (1958) Nigerian Catholic archbishop

Archbp. Kaigama calls on Gvt and Intl Community to protect Nigerians https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2020-12/nigeria-kidnappings-scholars-priests-lawlessness-appeal-kaigama.html (18 December 2020)

Brett Kavanaugh photo

“There is one kind of judge. There is an independent judge under our Constitution. And the fact that they may have been a Republican or Democrat or an independent in a past life is completely irrelevant to how they conduct themselves as judges. And I think two centuries of experience has shown us that that ideal which the Founders established can be realized and has been realized and will continue to be realized.”

Brett Kavanaugh (1965) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Confirmation Hearing on the Nomination OF Brett M. Kavanaugh to be Ciruit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit https://www.congress.gov/108/chrg/shrg24853/CHRG-108shrg24853.htm (April 27, 2004)

Related topics