“Researchers found that teenagers are more likely than adults to plead guilty to crimes they’re innocent of, due to differences in how they assess the incentives of a reduced sentence.”— Brian Gallagher, nautil.us
“To state the question more directly, are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated? Even in such a case, would not the official oath be broken, if the government should be overthrown, when it was believed that disregarding the single l…”— Abraham Lincoln, rogerjnorton.com
“I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States.”— Abraham Lincoln, abrahamlincolnonline.org
“Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative ha…”— Abraham Lincoln, abrahamlincolnonline.org
“But the proclamation, as law, either is valid, or is not valid. If it is not valid, it needs no retraction. If it is valid, it cannot be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to life.”— Abraham Lincoln, abrahamlincolnonline.org
“But a trial is not about a judge— who is an arbiter in matters of law. It’s about a jury— who are arbiters in matters of fact, but make decisions, like all human beings, based on emotion.”— Ryan Holiday, amazon.com
“The storm of frenzy and faction must inevitably dash itself in vain against the unshaken rock of the Constitution. I shall never doubt it.”— Franklin Pierce, amazon.com
“This mass mobilization against sexual abuse, through an unprecedented wave of speaking out in conventional and social media, is eroding the two biggest barriers to ending sexual harassment in law and in life: the disbelief and trivializing dehumanization of its victims.”— Catharine A Mackinnon, nytimes.com
“It is widely thought that when something is legally prohibited, it more or less stops. This may be true for exceptional acts, but it is not true for pervasive practices like sexual harassment, including rape, that are built into structural social hierarchies.”— Catharine A Mackinnon, nytimes.com
“His career, reputation, mental and emotional serenity and assets counted. Hers didn’t. In some ways, it was even worse to be believed and not have what he did matter. It meant she didn’t matter.”— Catharine A Mackinnon, nytimes.com
“Even when she was believed, nothing he did to her mattered as much as what would be done to him if his actions against her were taken seriously. His value outweighed her sexualized worthlessness.”— Catharine A Mackinnon, nytimes.com
“The world has nothing to fear from military ambition in our Government.”— James K. Polk, en.wikiquote.org
“Foreign powers do not seem to appreciate the true character of our Government.”— James K. Polk, en.wikiquote.org
“It has been the hope of every patriot that a sense of justice and of respect for the law would work a gradual cure of these flagrant evils. Surely no one supposes that the present can be accepted as a permanent condition. If it is said that these communities must work out this problem for themselves…”— Benjamin Harrison, en.wikiquote.org
“When and under what conditions is the black man to have a free ballot? When is he in fact to have those full civil rights which have so long been his in law? When is that equality of influence which our form of government was intended to secure to the electors to be restored? This generation should…”— Benjamin Harrison, en.wikiquote.org
“Gospel: Jesus plucks the heads of grain for his disciples to eat. He does this in direct contradiction of the law. Why? Because sometimes there are higher values than law. Jesus knows that legalisms cannot get in the way of love or human flourishing. He says this over and over.”— James Martin, SJ, twitter.com
“Capitalism, in its imperialist phase, is a system which considers war to be a legitimate instrument for settling international disputes, a legal method in fact, if not in law.”— Joseph Stalin, marxists.org
“There is no intrinsic virtue to law and order unless 'law' is equated with justice and 'order' with the discipline of a people satisfied that justice has been done. Law as an instrument of state oppression is a familiar feature of totalitarianism. Without a popularly elected legislature and an indep…”— Aung San Suu Kyi, amazon.com
“The words 'law and order' have so frequently been misused as an excuse for oppression that the very phrase has become suspect in countries which have known authoritarian rule.”— Aung San Suu Kyi, amazon.com