Chretien Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes Quotes
There are no good laws except simple laws.
Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, 1721-1794, French Royal Administrator, Secretary of State, Counselor to the High Court of Paris, 1775
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The Senator was arguing against a bill to correct an aspect of the immigration law where infants and very young clildren are broght to the United States by parents who entered illegally. The children grow up in the United States—the only country and home that they have ever known. American law required that they be deported to “their countries” which they have no memory of and many do not even speak the language or know the culture. Sessions, is an example of the view that law defines justice. Therefore laws cannot be unjust nor can enforcing the law. Opponents point out that even in the United States we have, in earlier times, “enforced the law” which we came to regret and see as an injustice. The Fugitive slave laws, the Southern racial discrimination laws, and the law allowing Japanese American Citizens to be interned and lose their land during WWII are a few examples of laws, the enforcement of which is seen by most Americans as having been unjust. The execution of “witches” in early America was in conformity with the law.
See Montesquieu {607909} for an earlier, similar view.
She was referring to laws that supported slavery.
The Senator was referring to the immigration laws which many, including him, thought were unjust, unfair, racist and discriminatory.
Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, often referred to as Malesherbes or Lamoignon-Malesherbes, was a French statesman and minister in the Ancien Régime, and later counsel for the defense of Louis XVI. He is known for his vigorous criticism of royal abuses as President of the Cour des Aides and his role, as director of censorship, in helping with the publication of the Encyclopédie. Despite his committed monarchism, his writings contributed to the development of liberalism during the French Age of Enlightenment.
