"You say: 'There are persons who have no money,' and you turn to the law. But the law is not a breast that fills itself with milk. Nor are the lacteal veins of the law supplied with milk from a source outside the society. Nothing can enter the public treasury for the benefit of one citizen or one class unless other classes have been forced to send it in... The law can be an instrument of equalization only as it takes from some persons and gives to other persons. When the law does this, it is an instrument of plunder." - Frédéric Bastiat, The Law, 1849.
"Alan Dershowitz has also offered to defend Osama bin Laden in court, saying it would be "an act of high patriotism." It's kind of too bad there isn't going to be a trial. Having Dershowitz defend him could be Osama's only shot at not being the least popular person in the courtroom." - Ann Coulter
“Here's my counter-offer to your counter-offer: go fuck yourself.” - Al Swearengen, Deadwood
"There's a smart-ass comment that engineers sometimes use. When hearing someone emphatically declare, "We can't do that!" someone else may reply, in exasperation, 'Why not? Does it violate the laws of physics?' We can't go faster than light. We can't violate the second law of thermodynamics. These are hard and fast restrictions imposed on us by the Universe; it isn't possible for us to fail to comply with these laws. But for lesser issues, it's not so clear. There are some who have enormous faith in the power of law. Not the laws of physics, mind, but the laws of man. But in a sense they seem to conflate the two, and for some reason I've never understood seem to think that if you pass a law against something-or-other, then mysterious forces will transform space-time and thereafter whatever-it-was will cease to happen, because it will be impossible.Advanced practitioners of this principle have perfected an even more sophisticated version of this approach: they don't even need to formally pass laws. What they do is talk about 'emerging international law', which sort of spontaneously springs out of nowhere, and once it's in being, the fabric of the universe is modified" - Steven Den Beste
"What bothers me about rape [trials] is that we seem to have discarded the traditional presumption of innocence. Somehow in this one crime, we've almost reached the point where there's a presumption of guilt. Where in armed robbery the victim's word and the defendant's word would have to be judged equal, in rape what she said is given more credence than what he said." - Steven Den Beste
"It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me. But it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
"Liberals in California quibble with anything to do with common sense and they now seem to be inferring that some of our citizens cannot navigate the narrow shoals of pushing a chad out with a sharp implement. It would appear that the liberal Ninth Circuit Court and other left-leaning groups herein feel that they can poke holes in anything unless of course it’s a punch card voting ballot." - Dennis Miller
"What part of [Federalist] 51 and 48 is unclear to New Jersey Democrats and their Supreme Court? Can't these folks count that high?" - Deroy Murdock
"If I tell you jump off a bridge and you do it, am I responsible? No! Next thing we see are going to be parents of teenagers who end up with children suing porn companies and book publishers because they publish sexual content. Monkey see, Monkey do. Monkey needs to get some common sense. The legal system here is beyond control when I can sue because I’m an idiot." - mastersage, slashdot.org talkback
"So it's the parent's responsibility to monitor children, but not someones own responsibility to not not drop hot liquid in their lap?
Strange. Do Americans sue Ford if they fall in the road and get run over by a car?" - perlyking, slashdot talkback"[T}he organizing principle of the international-law professoriate and commentariat sometimes seems to be "whatever the United States wants to do is against the law."" - Glenn Harlan Reynolds
"Hate is very important...you must want to kick [liberal judges] in the knees...you must want to tear off their robes..." - Prof. David Rosenberg, Harvard Law
"Kids are stupid. They don't listen. But they should. And so there's tort law." - Prof. David Rosenberg, Harvard Law
"A huge settlement will send a clear message to families that if you drink enough during pregnancy and then give your children matches, you might be eligible for free bags of money." - Seanbaby
"Lawsuits are destroying our ability to survive. We may be too stupid to get through a cup of coffee without help, but we're smart enough to know that our idiocy can make us rich." - Seanbaby
"This is America, and you're free to be as helplessly stupid as you want. " - Seanbaby
"The New Jersey Supreme Court has decided to interpret the state's laws establishing deadlines for candidates to get on the ballot "liberally"--which is to say, as if they didn't exist." - James Taranto
"Too many decisions are being made based on emotions rather than logic. People cannot be free if the rule of law is based on emotions" - Zaphod, Slashdot talkback