OPINIONS
OF THE
COURT
CLUB
Justice demands that wrongdoing be met with proportional consequence. The scales must balance.
True justice heals. It repairs the breach between offender, victim, and community.
Fair allocation of resources and burdens. Each receives according to what justice requires.
Justice lives in the integrity of the process. Fair procedures yield legitimate outcomes.
When one party wrongs another, the imbalance must be corrected. Restoration of equilibrium.
Law exists before statute. It is written in the nature of things, discoverable by reason alone.
Law is what is enacted. Morality and legality are separate domains. The statute speaks.
The greatest good for the greatest number. Justice is measured by its consequences.
OPINIONS
OF THE
COURT
LANDMARK
DECISIONS
"The very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws, whenever he receives an injury."
-- Marbury v. Madison, 1803
"Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected if it is untrue."
-- A Theory of Justice, 1971
"The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience. The felt necessities of the time, the prevalent moral and political theories have had a good deal more to do than the syllogism."
-- The Common Law, 1881
"In the halls where judgment is rendered, silence speaks louder than any verdict. It is the pause before the gavel falls that holds the weight of centuries."
-- On Judicial Temperament, 1952
"The law is not a machine and the judges are not machine-tenders. There never was and never will be a body of fixed and predetermined rules alike for all."
-- The Nature of the Judicial Process, 1921
The foundation upon which all judgment rests. Without evidence, there is only opinion. Without scrutiny of evidence, there is only prejudice. The judge weighs what is presented, not what is imagined.
The accumulated wisdom of those who judged before. Stare decisis -- let the decision stand. But precedent is a guide, not a prison. The living law must breathe.
The written word of the legislature. Black letter law. The judge interprets but does not create. Yet in interpretation lies immense power -- the gap between letter and spirit.
The silent voice that remains when all arguments are heard, all precedents consulted, all statutes read. In the end, the judge is alone with the weight of decision. This is the burden and the privilege.
JUDGE.CLUB · EST. MCMXXIII
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