Arlen Specter Quotes

When I was a prosecutor in San Francisco I would get advice on trying cases from public defenders and defense attorneys.

There's a lot of money with a lot of big law firms that have a tremendous amount at stake by getting the right language to convince the right jury that my client is either innocent or that the opposition is guilty.

The only thing the defense has to do is take care of the client and see to it that they attack every weak spot on the prosecution's case. It's up to the judge to make sure that they don't pull any fast ones.

I'm an old trial lawyer.

The prosecutor, who is supposed to carry the burden of proof, really is an author.

A lawyer wants to get his client off the hook. And even if he knows the client is guilty, he is going to find ways and means of getting him off the hook.

I will be the defence lawyer of the Italian people.

Any litigator will tell you that adding to your legal team on the eve of trial most likely will not produce better lawyering but, rather, chaos.

I know O.J. better than anyone on the legal team. There are so many things I know about his personality. My job is really strategy and liaison between the lawyers and O.J.

I was a defense attorney before I was a prosecutor, and so knowing what the defense is going to try to do is something that you have to do constantly when you're in trial. I always went to trial knowing what they were doing. So I was always in both mindsets anyway. 'Oh, they're going to do this, then I'm going to do that.'

Sometimes it feels like there aren't enough hours in a day to get everything done.

No president gets all his judges.

I was only one-half the appointing power. I nominated, but the Senate confirmed.

Advise and Consent

There are very few countries in the world where we have a jury system as we all know.

A Senate chosen for six years will, in most instances, be an appointment for life, as the influence of such a body over the minds of the people will be coequal to the extensive powers with which they are vested, and they will not only forget, but be forgotten by their constituents.

For the modern criminal it is a great good fortune to be able to count somewhere among his ancestry or other relations a criminal, a lunatic, or just a mere drunkard, for in a court of law that will win him a lighter penalty or, not seldom, an acquittal. Things have come to such a pass that there is hardly a criminal case nowadays where that sort of defense is not put forward.

The most important rule for a nominee in a confirmation hearing is the 80/20 rule. If they are talking 80% of the time and you are talking 20%, you’re winning. If its 60/40, it means you are arguing. If it is 50/50, it means you have lost and you’d better throw in the towel.

The powers of the Senate over appointments were trifled with and disregarded by reappointing persons who had been already rejected …. The veto power conferred by the Constitution as a remedy for ill-considered legislation, was turned by him into a weapon of offence against Congress

The majority of [New York[ Supreme Court judges do not really work. Some of them are lazy. Of course there are a few who really work, but as for many of them, I would not give them $1700 a year as law clerks not to mention the $17,500 they receive. They and equally lazy lawyers are the primary cause of the congestion in our courts.

The law will argue anything, with anybody who will pay the law for the use of its brains and its time.

Every moment of free time is eaten up by fundraising.

It is … not unconstitutional for the House of Representatives to refuse to fund the government, or for the Senate to deny confirmation to all presidential nominees. But since only the House can originate money bills, and only the Senate can confirm nominees, the system cannot tolerate such intransigence for long.

The only leverage we [Senators] have with the administration is the power to confirm.

There's nothing wrong with crooks having lawyers. Everyone is entitled to a lawyer.