Quotes about legal
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Warren E. Burger photo
Hans Reiser photo

“Doing GPL work is doing charity work in our current legal and economic framework.”

Hans Reiser (1963) American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and convicted murderer

Source: Interview with Hans Reiser http://archive.is/20121228020732/kerneltrap.org/node/5654

Joni Madraiwiwi photo
Julius Streicher photo

“The Roman historian Tacitus once said, that the health and the disease of a state can be measured in the number of its laws. If we Germans nowadays look at the huge number of laws, we have to say, that it's not health, but death that we're approaching. … It is strange that it is Social Democracy of all movements, which in the old state complained about exceptions, that now issues exception laws itself. These exception-laws are means of force and are created in the parliaments with the help of supranational financial powers. …
In the old state an interest rate of more than 6 percent was deemed usury. Today this usury is legalized. It was YOU, the men of the left -- who always pretend to fight against capitalism and exploitation -- who accomplished this. It will be your downfall!”

Julius Streicher (1885–1946) German politician

Der römische Geschichtsschreiber Tacitus hat einmal gesagt, dass man die Gesundheit und die Krankheit eines Staates nach der Zahl seiner Gesetze ermessen könne. Wenn wir Deutsche heute die große Zahl unserer Gesetze betrachten, dann müssen wir sagen, dass wir nicht der Gesundheit, sondern dem Tode entgegengehen. … Es ist sonderbar, dass ausgerechnet die Sozialdemokratie, die sich im alten Staat immer über Ausnahmen aufgeregt hat, jetzt selbst Ausnahmegesetze erläßt! Diese Ausnahmegesetze sind Zwangsmittel und werden in den Parlamenten mit Hilfe überstaatlicher Finanzmächte geschaffen. …
Im alten Staate galt ein Zinsfuß von mehr als 6 Prozent als Wucher. Heute ist dieser Wucher gesetzlich genehmigt. Das haben SIE, meine Herren von der Linken, die Sie immer vorgeben, Kapitalismus und Ausbeutung zu bekämpfen, fertiggebracht! Daran werden Sie zugrunde gehen!
04/20/1926, speech in the Bavarian regional parliament ("Kampf dem Weltfeind", Stürmer publishing house, Nuremberg, 1938)

Camille Paglia photo
Jerzy Vetulani photo
Lyndon B. Johnson photo
Jesse Ventura photo
William Scott, 1st Baron Stowell photo

“In the first place, it is not improper to observe, that the law of cases of necessity is not likely to be well furnished with precise rules; necessity creates the law, it supersedes rules; and whatever is reasonable and just in such cases, is likewise legal; it is not to be considered as matter of surprise, therefore, if much instituted rule is not to be found on such subjects.”

William Scott, 1st Baron Stowell (1745–1836) British politician

The Gratitudine (18 December 1801); as published in Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Admiralty, Commencing with the Judgments of the Right Hon. Sir William Scott, Michaelmas Term, 1798, Vol. III (1802) http://books.google.com/books?id=-vcvAAAAYAAJ, p. 266.

Warren Farrell photo
Edward Carpenter photo
William C. Davis photo
Clarence Thomas photo

“One opinion that is trotted out for propaganda, for the propaganda parade, is my dissent in Hudson vs. McMillian. The conclusion reached by the long arms of the critics is that I supported the beating of prisoners in that case. Well, one must either be illiterate or fraught with malice to reach that conclusion. Though one can disagree with my dissent, and certainly the majority of the court disagreed, no honest reading can reach such a conclusion. Indeed, we took the case to decide the quite narrow issue, whether a prisoner's rights were violated under the 'cruel and unusual punishment' clause of the Eighth Amendment as a result of a single incident of force by the prison guards which did not cause a significant injury. In the first section of my dissent, I stated the following: 'In my view, a use of force that causes only insignificant harm to a prisoner may be immoral; it may be tortuous; it may be criminal, and it may even be remediable under other provisions of the Federal Constitution. But it is not cruel and unusual punishment.' Obviously, beating prisoners is bad. But we did not take the case to answer this larger moral question or a larger legal question of remedies under other statutes or provisions of the Constitution. How one can extrapolate these larger conclusions from the narrow question before the court is beyond me, unless, of course, there's a special segregated mode of analysis.”

Clarence Thomas (1948) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

1990s, I Am a Man, a Black Man, an American (1998)

Scott Adams photo
Dorothy L. Sayers photo

“No admission of the party... can make that legal which is in its nature illegal.”

William Henry Ashurst (judge) (1725–1807) English judge

Atherfold v. Beard (1788), 1 T. R. 615.

Hugo Black photo

“[…] all legal restrictions which curtail the civil rights of a single racial group are immediately suspect. That is not to say that all such restrictions are unconstitutional.”

Hugo Black (1886–1971) U.S. Supreme Court justice

Writing for the court, Korematsu v. United States, 33 U.S. 124 (1944).

Joe Biden photo

“I, too, believe there are natural rights that predate any written political or legal documents; we have these rights merely because we're children of God.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Page 178
2000s, Promises to Keep (2008)

Roberto Saviano photo
Boris Johnson photo

“Yes, cannabis is dangerous, but no more than other perfectly legal drugs. It's time for a rethink, and the Tory party - the funkiest, most jiving party on Earth - is where it's happening.”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

"No one obeys the speed limit except a motorised rickshaw", Daily Telegraph, 12 July 2001, p. 27.
2000s, 2001

Jon Sobrino photo
Salmon P. Chase photo

“For, what is slavery? It is the complete and absolute subjection of one person to the control and disposal of another person, by legalized force. We need not argue that no person can be, rightfully, compelled to submit to such control and disposal. All such subjection must originate in force; and, private force not being strong enough to accomplish the purpose, public force, in the form of law, must lend its aid. The Government comes to the help of the individual slaveholder, and punishes resistance to his will, and compels submission. THE GOVERNMENT, therefore, in the case of every individual slave, is THE REAL ENSLAVER, depriving each person enslaved of all liberty and all property, and all that makes life dear, without imputation of crime or any legal process whatsoever. This is precisely what the Government of the United States is forbidden to do by the Constitution. The Government of the United States, therefore, cannot create or continue the relation of master and slave. Nor can that relation be created or continued in any place, district, or territory, over which the jurisdiction of the National Government is exclusive; for slavery cannot subsist a moment after the support of the public force has been withdrawn.”

Salmon P. Chase (1808–1873) Chief Justice of the United States

"The Address of the Southern and Western Liberty Convention" http://alexpeak.com/twr/libertyparty/saw/, in Anti-slavery Addresses of 1844 and 1845 by Salmon Portland Chase and Charles Dexter Cleveland, ed. C. D. C. (London: Sampson Low, Son, and Martson, 1867), pp. 75–125.

“A legal code that protects the prerogatives of the owners and is officially respected (and hence calculable) is another element.”

Richard Sandbrook (1946–2005) environmentalist

Source: The State and Economic Stagnation in Tropical Africa, p. 320

Harry V. Jaffa photo
Neil Gorsuch photo
Roberto Mangabeira Unger photo
Akio Morita photo

“I have had my difficulties with the American legal system, and so I feel qualified to talk about it.”

Akio Morita (1921–1999) Japanese businessman

Source: Made in Japan (1986), p. 175.

Rod Blagojevich photo

“I'll do anything, legal and ethical and honest.”

Rod Blagojevich (1956) Former Governor of Illinois

The Apprentice
Source: David, Schaper, Corruption Trial To Start For Ex-Ill. Gov. Blagojevich, June 2, 2010, Morning Edition, National Public Radio, transcript, June 29, 2015 http://www.wbur.org/npr/127362076,

Gustav Radbruch photo
Michael McIntyre photo

“[imitating a scottish person] (on Scottish money) I think you'll find pal, that's legal tender.”

Michael McIntyre (1976) British comedian

Live at the Apollo (November 26, 2007)

George Jessel (jurist) photo

“Professional advice in England is confined to legal advice.”

George Jessel (jurist) (1824–1883) British politician

Slade v. Tucker (1880), L. R. 14 C. D. 827.

Alex Salmond photo
Francis Escudero photo

“The only American woman deserving a place on U. S. paper currency is, of course, Anne Hutchinson, a devout 17th century Protestant New Englander who was a fearless champion of religious liberty, family, free speech, and equality — not preference — for women in religious affairs. Perhaps a new piece of currency could be created, one to which the attachment of her portrait would do honor. Ms. Hutchinson, however, is out of contention in the Democrats’ virulent anti-Southern currency crusade because her character traits – and the fifteen children she had with one husband — just do not jive with being Modern Democratic Party Women, those who glory in, and seek legal, economic, and political preference for their talents in whining, vamping, aborting, as well as recognition for their indispensable and eagerly given help in making the United States one of the world’s industrial-scale producers of both pornography and the dismembered corpses of infants. There may be something that can be done, however. The portrait of another Democratic icon named Woodrow Wilson now adorns the $100,000 bill, which appears to be to be used mainly in transactions.”

Michael Scheuer (1952) American counterterrorism analyst

As quoted in Michael Scheuer's Non-Intervention http://non-intervention.com/1689/democrats-scourge-the-south-after-the-battle-flag-it%e2%80%99s-on-to-old-hickory/ (9 July 2015), by M. Scheuer.
2010s

Colin Blackburn, Baron Blackburn photo
Ingrid Newkirk photo
Bill Frist photo
Laisenia Qarase photo
Bernice King photo
Michel Foucault photo
Jay Leiderman photo

“It is fashionable always to cast aspersion upon those that defend persons accused of committing crimes. The viler the accused crime, the more vigorous defense the accused needs, yet, at the same time, the more vitriol the defense attorney will face. I cannot speak for my brethren in the legal community, I can only state that what follows my own brand of patriotism; I defend those charged with crimes because it is both my duty as a lawyer and as an American. Each piece of resistance to the encroachment of overreaching governmental power is, and of itself, a victory for freedom.”

Jay Leiderman (1971) lawyer

As stated in, On the Defense of Criminals, an essay by Jay Leiderman. http://jayleiderman.com/blog/on-the-defense-of-criminals-an-essay-by-jay-leiderman/
Variant: It is fashionable always to cast aspersion upon those that defend persons accused of committing crimes. The viler the accused crime, the more vigorous defense the accused needs, yet, at the same time, the more vitriol the defense attorney will face. I cannot speak for my brethren in the legal community, I can only state that what follows my own brand of patriotism; I defend those charged with crimes because it is both my duty as a lawyer and as an American. Each piece of resistance to the encroachment of overreaching governmental power is, and of itself, a victory for freedom.

Anita Sarkeesian photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Not found in any of Thomas Jefferson's writings. This may be a conflation of Jefferson's "chains of the Constitution" comment with Ayn Rand's statement in her essay, Man's Rights: "There are two potential violators of man’s rights: the criminals and the government. The great achievement of the United States was to draw a distinction between these two — by forbidding to the second the legalized version of the activities of the first." http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/two-enemies-people-are-criminals-and-governmentquotation
Misattributed

Marsha Blackburn photo
Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman photo
Bob Barr photo

“…there remains time to turn back the constitutional clock and roll back excessive post-9/11 powers before we turn the corner into another Japanese internment or, closer to our own experiences, before we witness a legally sanctioned Ruby Ridge or Waco scenario.”

Bob Barr (1948) Republican and Libertarian politician

Testimony Submitted to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on America Post-9/11, 18 November 2003, as quoted in America after 9/11: Freedom Preserved or Freedom Lost? http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/congress/2003_h/031118-barr.htm.
2000s, 2003

John Ralston Saul photo
Ilana Mercer photo

“Rights give rise to legal claims. Ultimately, the more rights animals are granted, the greater the legal lien exercised on their behalf against the liberty and property of people.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

"In Defense of Vick, Man is the Only Top Dog," http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/rights-animals-peta-1836739-human-moral Orange County Register, September 2, 2007.
2000s, 2007

Richard Stallman photo

“Dubya has nominated another caveman for a federal appeals court. Refreshingly, the Democratic Party is organizing opposition.
The nominee is quoted as saying that if the choice of a sexual partner were protected by the Constitution, "prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography, and even incest and pedophilia" also would be. He is probably mistaken, legally — but that is unfortunate. All of these acts should be legal as long as no one is coerced. They are illegal only because of prejudice and narrowmindedness.
Some rules might be called for when these acts directly affect other people's interests. For incest, contraception could be mandatory to avoid risk of inbreeding. For prostitution, a license should be required to ensure prostitutes get regular medical check-ups, and they should have training and support in insisting on use of condoms. This will be an advance in public health, compared with the situation today.
For necrophilia, it might be necessary to ask the next of kin for permission if the decedent's will did not authorize it. Necrophilia would be my second choice for what should be done with my corpse, the first being scientific or medical use. Once my dead body is no longer of any use to me, it may as well be of some use to someone. Besides, I often enjoy rhinophytonecrophilia”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

nasal sex with dead plants
Stallman archives (28 June 2003) https://stallman.org/archives/2003-may-aug.html
2000s

Harry Browne photo
Felix Frankfurter photo

“If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every man can. That means first chaos, then tyranny. Legal process is an essential part of the democratic process.”

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge

Concurring, United States v. United Mine Workers, 330 U.S. 312 (1946).
Judicial opinions

Phil Brooks photo

“Are you proud o' yourself, Jeff? I could have been seriously injured last week. And you got a lot of nerve faking an eye injury and leaving me to fend for myself, especially considering you're the one who injured my eye in the first place. As far as what you said earlier about me making the whole thing up, coming out here with your cute eye patch mocking me: I wanna show you something, Jeff." (takes out a little plastic jar of some sort of liquid eye medicine)
"This, is polymoxin bisulfate. I have to apply this to my eye three times a day. The only way you obtain this is with a prescription, from a doctor. Now, I know, you know a thing or two about prescription medication, but I don't think you realize is that you have to go to a doctor to legally obtain some. Unlike you, Jeff, this is the only foreign substance I will allow in my body. So if you wanna imitate me, why don't you try living a clean lifestyle? Why don't you try living, a straightedge lifestyle? "Jeff… you've got two strikes. You know how many I have? Zero. Jeff, you know how many times I've been suspended? Zero. You know how many times I've been to a rehab facility? That's right- zero. And do you know what your chances are of beating me at Night of Champions?”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

(long pause)
"Zero."
Addressing Jeff Hardy before his match with the Great Khali, both to prove that his eye injury is real (in storyline) and to drive home a point about the drug-related mistakes of Jeff's past as recently as 16 months ago. July 10, 2009.
Friday Night SmackDown

Milton Friedman photo
Merrick Garland photo
Bassel Khartabil photo

“Got a legal approve from the Syrian government for Aiki Lab the first hackerspace in the Arab world. starting very soon in Damascus”

Bassel Khartabil (1981–2015) free culture and democracy activist, Syrian political prisoner

Tweet May 10, 2010, 1:02PM https://twitter.com/basselsafadi/status/15061612812 at Twitter.com

Edward Jenks photo
Joseph Beuys photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Bernie Sanders photo

“Mr. Speaker, in the brief time I have let me give you five reasons why I'm opposed to giving the President a blank check to launch a unilateral invasion and occupation of Iraq and why I will vote against this resolution.One: I have not heard any estimates of how many young American men and women might die in such a war, or how many tens of thousands of women and children in Iraq might also be killed. As a caring nation, we should do everything we can to prevent the horrible suffering that a war will cause. War must be the last recourse in international relations, not the first.Second, I am deeply concerned about the precedent that a unilateral invasion of Iraq could establish in terms of international law and the role of the United Nations. If President Bush believes that the US can go to war at any time against any nation, what moral or legal obligation can our government raise if another country chose to do the same thing.Third, the United States in now involved in a very difficult war against international terrorism, as we learned tragically on September eleventh. We are opposed by Osama Bin Ladin and religious fanatics who are prepared to engage in a kind of warfare that we have never experienced before. I agree with Brent Scowcroft, Republican former national security adviser for President George Bush senior, who stated and I quote, "An attack on Iraq at this time would seriously jeopardize if not destroy the global counter-terrorist campaign we have undertaken."Fourth, at a time when this country has a six-trillion dollar national debt and a growing deficit, we should be clear that a war and a long-term American occupation of Iraq could be extremely expensive.Fifth, I am concerned about the problems with so-called unintended consequences. Who will govern Iraq when Saddam Hussein is removed? And what role will the US play in an ensuing civil war that could develop in that country? Will moderate governments in the regions who have large Islamic fundamentalist populations be overthrown and replaced by extremists? Will the bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority be exacerbated? And these are just a few of the questions that remain unanswered.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

Speech on Iraq War Resolution in US House of Representatives https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdFw1btbkLM (9 October 2002)
2000s

Thomas Jefferson photo
Silvio Berlusconi photo

“In absolute terms, I am the most legally persecuted man of all times, in the whole history of mankind, worldwide.”

Silvio Berlusconi (1936) Italian politician

On prosecutions against him, as quoted in "Silvio Berlusconi: I am inferior to no one in history" in The Guardian (10 October 2009) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/09/berlusconi-boast-best-in-history
2009

Anton Chekhov photo

“Narrative prose is a legal wife, while drama is a posturing, boisterous, cheeky and wearisome mistress.”

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian dramatist, author and physician

Letter to A.N. Pleshcheev (January 15, 1889)
Letters

Theodore Dalrymple photo

“It seems that when an impending catastrophe will affect them personally, in their very flesh and blood, intellectuals start to think more clearly about the legal and institutional prerequisites of a free society.”

Theodore Dalrymple (1949) English doctor and writer

Ideas That Kill http://www.city-journal.org/html/10_1_diarist.html (Winter 2000).
City Journal (1998 - 2008)

Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley photo

“A proceeding may be perfectly legal and may yet be opposed to sound commercial principles.”

Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley (1828–1921) English judge

Verner v. General, &c. Trust (1894), L. R. 2 C. D. [1894], 264.

“To the memory of Sir Thomas Denison, Knt., this monument was erected by his afflicted widow. He was an affectionate husband, a generous relation, a sincere friend, a good citizen, an honest man. Skilled in all the learning of the common law, he raised himself to great eminence in his profession; and showed by his practice, that a thorough knowledge of the legal art and form is not litigious, or an instrument of chicane, but the plainest, easiest, and shortest way to the end of strife. For the sake of the public he was pressed, and at the last prevailed upon, to accept the office of a judge in the Court of King's Bench. He discharged the important trust of that high office with unsuspected integrity, and uncommon ability. The clearness of his understanding, and the natural probity of his heart, led him immediately to truth, equity, and justice; the precision and extent of his legal knowledge enabled him always to find the right way of doing what was right. A zealous friend to the constitution of his country, he steadily adhered to the fundamental principle upon which it is built, and by which alone it can be maintained, a religious application of the inflexible rule of law to all questions concerning the power of the crown, and privileges of the subject. He resigned his office February 14, 1765, because from the decay of his health and the loss of his sight, he found himself unable any longer to execute it. He died September 8, 1765, without issue, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. He wished to be buried in his native country, and in this church. He lies here near the Lord Chief Justice Gascoigne, who by a resolute and judicious exertion of authority, supported law and government in a manner which has perpetuated his name, and made him an example famous to posterity.”

Thomas Denison (1699–1765) British judge (1699–1765)

Memorial inscription, reported in Edward Foss, The Judges of England, With Sketches of Their Lives (1864), Volume 8, p. 266-268.
About

John Gray photo
Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman photo
Orson Scott Card photo
Peter Galison photo

“To Donham, the case study stood squarely in the legal and cultural tradition of Anglo-American thought. Unlike French or Spanish law. Donham emphasized, English law was grounded on the doctrine of stare decisis, in which the written case decisions of the past shape, and instantiate, the law. Just as the recording of cases allowed English common law to break the arbitrariness of local law. Donham argued in 1925, business needed to universalize its procedures by itself adopting the case system. The chaos of local law that ruled in England before the common law. Donham contended, "is exactly the same situation that we have [in the world of business] where practically every large corporation is tightly hound by traditions which are precedents in its particular narrow field and narrow held only The recording of decisions from industry to industry [enables] us to start from facts and draw inferences from those facts; [it] will introduce principle… in the field of business to such an extent that it will control executive action in the field where executive action is haphazard or unprincipled or bound by narrow, instead of broad precedent and decision"”

Peter Galison (1955) American physicist

W. Donham, transcript of talk to the Association of Coll. School of Business Committee Reports and Other Literature, 5-7 May 1925. Harvard Business School, box 17, folder 10. 62
Source: Image and Logic, 1997, p. 57, footnote 66

Robert Sheckley photo
Michel Foucault photo
Samuel Johnson photo
Adolf Hitler photo
Albert Hofmann photo
Robin Williams photo
Serzh Sargsyan photo

“Perfidy and brutal force thwarted opportunities for calling President Wilson’s Arbitral Award to life. Nevertheless, its significance is not to be underestimated: through that decision the aspiration of the Armenian people for the lost Motherland had obtained vital and legal force.”

Serzh Sargsyan (1954) Armenian politician, 3rd President of Armenia

Address of President Serzh Sargsyan to the Conference dedicated to the 90th Anniversary of Woodrow Wilson’s Arbitral Award http://www.president.am/events/news/eng/?pn=14&id=1316 (November 23, 2010)

Eugene V. Debs photo

“The class which has the power to rob upon a large scale has also the power to control the government and legalize their robbery.”

Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) American labor and political leader

in Debs (1971), p. 75

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel photo

“Honour is the mysticism of legality.”

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829) German poet, critic and scholar

Aphorism 77, of Ideas as translated in The Early Political Writings of the German Romantics (1996) edited by Frederick C. Beiser, p. 131

David Boaz photo
Stephen King photo
Mark Hertling photo
Nguyen Khanh photo

“I an a political asylum situation here. Legally, I cannot tell that I am making any politics action here. But I always want to be with my people over there. I want to go back to Vietnam, of course, if possible.”

Nguyen Khanh (1927–2013) South Vietnamese soldier

Political resentment in contemporary Vietnam
1980s, Interview with Nguyen Khanh (1981)

Gustav Radbruch photo
Joseph Story photo
Christopher Titus photo
Mick Mulvaney photo
Chittaranjan Das photo

“In my whole legal career I have not met worse types of criminals than in politics.”

Chittaranjan Das (1870–1925) Indian politician and leader of the Swaraj Party

Chittaranjan Das, quoted from Sri Aurobindo, ., Nahar, S., Aurobindo, ., & Institut de recherches évolutives (Paris). India's rebirth: A selection from Sri Aurobindo's writing, talks and speeches. Paris: Institut de Recherches Evolutives. 3rd Edition (2000). https://web.archive.org/web/20170826004028/http://bharatvani.org/books/ir/IR_frontpage.htm