top of page
Quotes by Judge

"We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is, and the judiciary is the safeguard of our property and our liberty and our property under the Constitution."

"Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens."

"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material but I know it when I see it."

"The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins."


"There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes."

"To be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old."


"My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady and the other was to be independent, and the law was something most unusual for those times because for most girls growing up in the '40s, the most important degree was not your B.A. but your M.R.S."


"The husband and wife are one, and that one is the husband."


"The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedoms."


"Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen."

"Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman."


"If the right to privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion."

"Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do."

"Although NFL teams have common interests such as promoting the NFL brand, they are still separate, profit-making entities, and their interests in licensing team trademarks are not necessarily aligned."

"Disapproval of homosexuality cannot justify invading the houses, hearts and minds of citizens who choose to live their lives differently."

"Man's mind, stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions."


"The public good is in nothing more essentially interested, than in the protection of every individual's private rights."

"Prior to any questioning, the person must be warned that he has a right to remain silent, that any statement he does make may be used as evidence against him and that he has a right to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed."

"In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action."

"It is a wise man who said that there is no greater inequality than the equal treatment of unequals."

"Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess."


"Each of us brings to our job, whatever it is, our lifetime of experience and our values."

"Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke."

"You make me chuckle when you say that you are no longer young, that you have turned twenty-four. A man is or may be young to after sixty, and not old before eighty."

"Before this distinguished assembly and the world, the bells today proclaim the joyous tidings of the completion of this quietly soaring tower."

"There is no requirement that police stop a person who enters a police station and states that he wishes to confess a crime or a person who calls the police to offer a confession because volunteered statements of any kind are not barred by the 5th Amendment."

"Carve every word before you let it fall."


"Occasionally we have to interpret an international treaty - one, perhaps, affecting airlines and liability for injury to passengers or damage to goods. Then, of course, we have to look to the precedents of other member nations in resolving issues."

"But it is strange how many rational beings believe the ultimate truths of the universe to be reducible to patterns on a blackboard."
bottom of page