Charles T. Canady Quotes

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

But, I know enough people in that court, through the years, to know one thing: There's always somebody who surprises you, who rises above what they thought they appointed him for, and stays with the separation of powers, and with the right of the law to decide.

I tried to decide each case based on the law and the Constitution.

We apply law to facts. We don't apply feelings to facts.

We do not sit like a kadi under a tree dispensing justice according to considerations of individual expediency

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.

Well, I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner. And that's what I try to do, is sometimes I lean to one side of it, sometimes I lean to the other.

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

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

The glorious uncertainty of the law was a thing well known and complained of, by all ignorant people, but all learned gentleman considered it as its greatest excellency.

Reaching a conclusion has to start with what the parties are arguing, but examining in all situations carefully the facts as they prove them or not prove them, the record as they create it, and then making a decision that is limited to what the law says on the facts before the judge.

'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.

It is very important to know the law, but it is more important to know the judge

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

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

Lady Justice doesn't have empathy for anyone. She rules strictly based upon the law, and that's really the only way that our system can function properly under the Constitution.

Our role as judges is to interpret the law.

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

Who thinks the law has anything to do with justice? It's what we have because we can't have justice.

Justice can only be dispensed when you have all the facts in front of you.

If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us.

Be just and if you can't be just, be arbitrary.

But I have always said that it's important we must make sure that justice is at all time be maintained.

Let's not interfere with justice... Let's let justice speak.

Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.