Barack Obama Quotes

[T]he rule of law does more than ensure freedom from high-handed action by rulers. It ensures justice between man and man however humble the one and however powerful the other. A man with five dollars in the bank can call to account the corporation with five billion dollars in assets-and the two will be heard as equals before the law.

No one is above the law, and no one is beneath the law.

No one can be immune from our laws; everyone must be held to account.

No man is above the law, and no man is below it.

Big guy and little guy, it should make no difference. The rule of law demands neutrality.

The state of law is equal for all people. It cannot depend on electoral politics.

Laws are to govern all alike—those opposed as well as those who favor them.

This country does not punish its political enemies. What this country ensures is that no one is above the law.

Appropriated to justice, to security, to reason, to restraint; where there is no respect of persons; where will is nothing and power is nothing and numbers are nothing, and all are equal and all secure before the law.

If the law doesn't apply equally to everybody, then you don't really have a system of law.

The state and its elites must be subject, in theory and in practice, to the same laws that its poorest citizens are.

We contend that in all laws made, or to be made, every person shall be bound alike—neither should any tenure, estate, charter, degree, birth or place, confer any exemption from the ordinary course of legal proceedings and responsibilities whereunto others are subjected.

Every person within this jurisdiction, whether inhabitant or foreigner, shall enjoy the same justice and law that is general for the plantation, which we constitute and execute one toward another without partiality or delay.

No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor.

At the Justice Department, we have no greater obligation than ensuring all people are treated equally under the law, and Americans must know that we will vigorously pursue criminal activity regardless of whether the crime is committed on a street corner or in a corner office.

At the end of the day, the law is the same for the Prime Minister or a common man of India.

I don't believe anyone is above the law.

I just want to believe that, as a citizen in this country, that I have equal protection under the law and that I can have a situation assessed fairly, that people can look at it, and that a court of law can determine what the outcome is.

I simply apply the law fairly and equally to all our citizens.

Loyalty to the principles upon which our Government rests positively demands that the equality before the law which it guarantees to every citizen should be justly and in good faith conceded in all parts of the land.

We cannot live in peace without Law. And though law cannot be perfect, it may be just if it is written in ignorance of the identity of the claimants and applied equally to all. Then it is a possession not only of the claimants but of the society, which may now base its actions upon a reasonable assumption of the law?s treatment.

Every citizen, regardless of his race, creed, or color, is entitled to equal justice.

I know that my race must change. We cannot hold our own with the white men as we are. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. We ask that the same law shall work alike on all men. If an Indian breaks the law, punish him by the law. If a white man breaks the law, punish him also.

Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful.

The rule of law doesn't mean the police are in charge, but that we all answer to the same laws.