H. L. Mencken Quotes

Judges... are picked out from the most dextrous lawyers, who are grown old or lazy, and having been biased all their lives against truth or equity, are under such a fatal necessity of favoring fraud, perjury and oppression, that I have known several of them to refuse a large bribe from the side where justice lay, rather than injure the faculty by doing any thing unbecoming their nature in office.

Am I right in saying that the locust of this problem is simply that judges in America are half political animals and half oracular demigods?

My concern was whether I could do the job of a justice well enough to convince the nation that my appointment was the right move.

Legislators and judges are necessarily exposed to all the temptations of money, fame, and power, to induce them to disregard justice between parties, and sell the rights, and violate the liberties of the people. Jurors, on the other hand, are exposed to none of these temptations.

If the country comes to believe that judges are politicians in robes no end of difficulty will come from that.

Can the public feel secure with a host of judges elected for a variety of conflicting reasons.

As, for the safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn from their bench, whose erroneous biases are leading us to dissolution. It may indeed injure them in fame or in fortune; but it saves the republic, which is the first and supreme law.

I don't want to know what the law is, I want to know who the judge is.

Knowing that religion does not furnish grosser bigots than law, I expect little from old judges.

Courts in America seem to be so political, and it would be so great for our justice system if they would be able to read a statement and do what's right.

I have to say that the judges and our judiciary system makes better decisions than the politicians.

We must remember that we have to make judges out of men, and that by being made judges their prejudices are not diminished and their intelligence is not increased.

How long will it be before the cry goes up: "Let's kill all the judges"?

America is just so imperative that we have the right justices.

As to whether I will ever get out, it will obviously take some large measures of public opinion because the judiciary system of America is totally interlaced with bureaucratic influences that perpetuate FBI control over judges, prosecutors and court proceedings.

Not that I've always agreed with what she said - far from it - but Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has been properly lauded, in my view, as a judge who approached her duties with open-mindedness and with a sensitivity that affects her decisions would have on everyday, ordinary people.

When innocence trembles, it condemns the judge.

The reality is that our independent judiciary is the most respected branch of our government and the envy of the world.

When the President of the United States attacks a movie star it is undignified and it casts a poor light on the United States of America. When the President of the United States attacks a sitting judge and questions his legitimacy, that actually can lead to a Constitutional crisis.

How is it appropriate for a judge ever to say that they will choose to see some facts and not others?

A judge who cannot punish, in the end associates themselves with the criminal.

Good judges are always open to the possibility of changing their minds based on the next brief that they read, or the next argument that's made by an attorney who's appearing before them, or a comment that is made by a colleague during the conference on the case when the judges privately discuss the case.

The debate over judicial nominations is a debate over the judiciary itself. It is a debate over how much power unelected judges should have in our system of government, how much control judges should have over a written constitution that belongs to the people.

It could well be the end of justice in America. Do not let Mr. Reagan get his hands on that court.

What havoc, said I to myself, would these manners make in America! Our governors, our judges, our senators or representatives, and even our ministers, would be appointed by harlots, for money; and their judgments, decrees, and decisions, be sold to repay themselves, or, perhaps, to procure the smiles of profligate females.