Jeh Johnson Quotes

Law is not a science, but is essentially empirical.

It is the merit of the common law that it decides the case first and determines the principles afterward.

Great cases like hard cases make bad law.

Law is largely crystallized custom.

There is nothing certain in the principles of jurisprudence.

General propositions do not decide concrete cases.

Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority.

It seems to me that stare decisis ought to be applied even to the doctrine of stare decisis, and I confess never to have heard of this new, keep-what-you-want-and-throw-away-the-rest version.

What I really like about law is that it's not an endless discourse like history or philosophy. In law, there comes a point where problems have to be solved, and cases decided.

My job is to interpret the law based on how the legislature and the court has done it and then, of course, to use our system of justice to develop some new legal tools and new concepts.

When Congress writes a good law, then there are fewer lawsuits trying to interpret it.

The law has to be, in part, a teacher.

I always look for judges who respect precedent.

I think justices of all stripes agree that stare decisis is important, but not an inextricable command. It's not inflexible; it's not absolute.

I take judge-made law as one of the existing realities of life.

The rules and principles of case law have never been treated as final truths but as working hypotheses, continually retested in those great laboratories of the law, the courts of justice. Every new case is an experiment, and if the accepted rule which seems applicable yields a result which is felt to be unjust, the rule is reconsidered.

One precedent creates another and they soon accumulate and constitute law. What yesterday was a fact, today is doctrine.

Our lady the Common Law is a very wise old lady though she still has something to learn in telling what she knows.

Expedience, not justice, is the rule of contemporary American law.

The most celebrated system of jurisprudence known to the world begins, as it ends, with a Code.

How long soever it hath continued, if it be against reason, it is of no force in law.

Law is a formless mass of isolated decisions.

One precedent creates another. They soon accumulate and constitute law. What yesterday was fact, today is doctrine.

Judges ought to remember that their office is Ius dicere and not Ius dare; to interpret law, and not to make law, or give law.

You’ve got to expect that there will be twists and turns [in court opinions], especially with major doctrine.