Raymond Kethledge Quotes

The courtroom is a quiet place, Judge Roberts, where you park your political ideology, and you call the balls and you call the strikes.

I do not decide cases based on personal or policy preferences.

A judge is supposed to have empathy for no one but simply to follow the law.

Good judges do not side with anyone. They rule impartially and blindly based upon the law.

Throughout my decade on the bench, I have watched my colleagues strive day in and day out to do just as Socrates said we should - to hear courteously, answer wisely, consider soberly, and decide impartially.

The judge is not the knight-errant, roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of goodness.

A judge can't have any preferred outcome in any particular case. The judge's only obligation - and it's a solemn obligation - is to the rule of law.

Empathy is a virtue, but it should not be a guiding judicial principle.

'Fairness' can be an important quality for legislators to consider when they are passing public policies. But it is a subjective standard. And it has no place among judges on a court - whose duty is to dispassionately judge a law's constitutionality.

Justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is therefore always represented as blind.

You shall not be partial in judgment: hear out low and high alike.

Judges shall judge justly, according to the written law and not according to their own judgment.

In the criminal justice community, as a judge, being tough is not enough. You have to be fair.

A judge who likes every opinion he reaches is a bad judge.

Judges should follow the law in deciding cases - not their own values, good or bad.

A judge is supposed to be able to make a decision, and when you make a decision, very often one party - and very often both - are a little disappointed.

I am not a pro-prosecution or pro-defense judge.

A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law.

Finally, a good prosecutor knows that her job is to enforce the law without fear or favor. Likewise, a Supreme Court Justice must interpret the laws without fear or favor.

I think the time has come for the United States to do even-handed justice.

I've always tried to be fair, even-handed, not an advocate for any group.

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

I think perfect objectivity is an unrealistic goal; fairness, however, is not.

I'm very partisan, but I'm also very fair.

… without animus or partiality.