Matt Gonzalez Quotes

… a clear abuse of judicial power

I don't know how a judge can concentrate on being fair and impartial when he or she is faced with possible jail time for making a decision that others deem incorrect.

The right of the judge to inflict punishment gives him both power and opportunity to oppress the innocent; yet none but crazy men will from thence determine that it is best to have neither a legislature nor judges.

We must keep in mind the vast power entrusted to Federal judges. They never stand for election. Once appointed, they serve for life. The havoc that a Federal District Court Judge can wreak is substantial.

I don't suggest we ought to be able to pressure judges, but we ought to be able to criticize [them] when we think they've made a mistake

Judges are objects of aversion and distrust.

The state in commissioning its judges has commanded them to judge, but neither in constitution nor in statute has it formulated a code to define the manner of their judging.

It has not been unknown that judges persist in error to avoid giving the appearance of weakness and vacillation.

A judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge... stretching for results he prefers rather than those the law demands.

Such a prostitution of judicial power can never occur again under the shadow of the British law, for no jury within the wide circle of the empire would submit to such an infraction of their privilege, even if a judge could be found daring enough to attempt it.

If the courts are making the decisions, it matters who the judge is and, of course, people are concerned with what is the bottom line.

I'm a judge. It seemed to me that it was critical to try to take action to stem the criticism and help people understand that in the constitutional framework, it's terribly important not to have a system of retaliation against decisions people don't like.

Judicial abuse occurs when judges substitute their own political views for the law.

I'll have you understand I am running this court, and the law hasn't got a damn thing to do with it!

It's important not to get into the business of characterizing judges based on one decision they make

As, for the safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn from the bench, whose erroneous biases are leading us to dissolution.

Our judges are as honest as other men and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps.

The practice of dealing with publications scandalizing judges under the criminal process of contempt of court ought to be stopped, voluntarily by the judges or under the compulsion of impeachment.

I have written this treatise because there are judges who decide cases according to their own will rather than by the authority of the laws

We don't pay judges to think; we pay judges to rule on the law.

Judges are the weakest link in our system of justice and they are also the most protected.

Judges ... rule on the basis of law, not public opinion, and they should be totally indifferent to pressures of the times.

I certainly would not vote against a particular judge already in office because of a decision in a case. You may not agree with a judge's decision, but the judge must act within the law.

The fascination about being a judge is the same about the duty of being a judge, and that is to ask yourself, Why am I about to rule the way I am about to rule? You must always ask yourself that question.

Judges can determine fair justice far better than any inane federal mandate.