Judicial Impartiality Quotes

Take all the robes of all the good judges that have ever lived on the face of the earth, and they would not be large enough to cover the iniquity of one corrupt judge.

Samuel Chase is tending to prostitute the high judicial character with which he was invested, to the low purpose of an electioneering partisan

Republicans say to Democrats, “Your judges are political activists.” The Democrats respond to the Republicans, “Your judges are political activists.” So the public thinks that all judges are political activists and just politicians in robes. This is very worrying.

It’s not what I as a judge believe is right. It is what I believe the normal man of reasonable ability and integrity believes is right.

Judge Kavanaugh has an exemplary record of service to the judiciary and the rule of law.

One who belongs to the most vilified and persecuted minority in history is not likely to be insensible to the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution... But as judges we are neither Jew nor Gentile, neither Catholic nor agnostic.

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

Judges certainly have political connections and strong political views, but that doesn't mean they can't rise above politics when they hear cases. We expect them to, and the law presumes they do.

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.

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As, for the safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn from their bench, whose erroneous biases are leading us to dissolution.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

Each justice enters the Supreme Court possessing a record of opinion by which he or she is measured, and that without threat of election or outside influence, they will apply the Constitution as they always have; thus, it's ridiculous to assert the opposite.

I believe that an independent and impartial judiciary is essential to our constitutional republic.

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 best way to have empathy for people and the best way to have empathy for our Constitution is to appoint judges who will rule based on the law and to have empathy, if you will, for the law only and to rule based on the law.

I don't think we need political activists on the Supreme Court or any other level of court.

The penalty shall be capital punishment for a judge or arbiter legally appointed who has been found guilty of receiving a bribe for giving a decision

I was driven years ago to the conclusion that political considerations had not hurt the character of appointments here [the supreme court].

'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.

Conservatives complain that the Supreme Court is too liberal. Liberals complain that it's too conservative. Both charges are inaccurate: in reality the Court is a careful political actor that arguably represents the center of gravity of American politics better than most politicians do.

The court stands less than tall when it defers hearing a case for political reasons.

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

Courts cannot refuse to hear a case on the merits merely because they would prefer not to.

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.

Great judges are also great teachers.