72 Independent Judiciary Quotes
Following is our list of independent judiciary quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about judicial power.
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Famous Independent Judiciary Quotes
The reality is that our independent judiciary is the most respected branch of our government and the envy of the world. — Ted Olson
A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government. — Thomas Jefferson
So long as we mayhavean independent Judiciary, the great interests of the people will be safe. — John Rutledge
All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary. — Andrew Jackson
I have to say that the judges and our judiciary system makes better decisions than the politicians. — Arnold Schwarzenegger
The judiciary must not take on the coloration of whatever may be popular at the moment. We are guardian of rights, and we have to tell people things they often do not like to hear. — Rose Bird
The proper role of the judiciary is one of interpreting and applying the law, not making it. — Sandra Day O'Connor
Historically, the judicial branch has often been the sole protector of the rights of minority groups against the will of the popular majority. — Diane Watson
A good and faithful judge ever prefers the honorable to the expedient. — Horace
We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is, and the judiciary is the safeguard of our property and our liberty and our property under the Constitution. — Charles Evans Hughes
The rule of law should be respected so that the basic structure of our democracy is maintained and further strengthened. — Lal Bahadur Shastri
Besides a happy policy as to civil government, it is necessary to institute a system of law and jurisprudence founded in justice, equity, and public right. — Ezra Stiles
It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is. — John Marshall
I have to think of my status as a resident in this country. But I do insist that in Paraguay there was order; the judiciary had the power of complete independence; justice was fully exercised. — Alfredo Stroessner
Judges are the weakest link in our system of justice, and they are also the most protected. — Alan Dershowitz
Judicial System Quotes
Our Parliamentary system has simply failed to meet the challenge of judicial activism. — Stockwell Day
The fundamental problem is that there's no credibility in the judicial system, which is a system that's been completely politicized. This is retaliation and selective repression. — Leopoldo Lopez
A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view. — Henrik Ibsen
There are some issues that are not in control of the government. Two of those issues are human rights and personal freedoms are in the domain of Iran's conservative judicial system. — Hassan Rouhani
JAG is an acronym for the Judge Advocate General, which is the judicial system of the military. — Catherine Bell
Our entire judicial system in Liberia has broken down because of the many years of lawlessness, indiscipline and warfare. We need more training to get more qualified judges. We need infrastructural reforms. All of our laws need to be re-examined by a law reform commission. — Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
True freedom requires the rule of law and justice, and a judicial system in which the rights of some are not secured by the denial of rights to others. — Jonathan Sacks
I have 100 percent confidence in the German judicial system. — Bernie Ecclestone
It would degrade our country and our judicial system to permit our courts to be bullied, insulted and humiliated and the orderly progress thwarted and obstructed by defendants brought before them charged with crimes. — Hugo Black
The judicial system is the most expensive machine ever invented for finding out what happened and what to do about it. — Irving R. Kaufman
Judicial Power Quotes
[T]he opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves, in their, own sphere of action, but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch. — Thomas Jefferson
All respect for the office of the presidency aside, I assumed that the obvious and unadulterated decline of freedom and constitutional sovereignty, not to mention the efforts to curb the power of judicial review, spoke for itself. — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
If [the legislature] will positively enact a thing to be done, the judges are not at liberty to reject it, for that were to set the judicial power above that of the legislature, which would be subversive of all government. — William Blackstone
The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men. — John Adams
Wise men wrote the Constitution, but clever judges have been destroying it, bit by bit, turning it into an instrument of arbitrary judicial power, instead of a limitation on all government power. — Thomas Sowell
Maintaining checks and balances on the power of the Judiciary Branch and the other two branches is vital to keep the form of government set up by our Founding Fathers. — Todd Tiahrt
Now that judges embrace forcibly starving someone to death, Congress should use its appropriation power to starve the judicial budget. — Phyllis Schlafly
Narrow scope of judicial power was the reason that people accepted the idea that the federal courts could have the power of judicial review; that is, the ability to decide whether a challenged law comports with the Constitution. — Sam Brownback
As an exercise of raw judicial power, the Court perhaps has authority to do what it does today; but, in my view, its judgment is an improvident and extravagant exercise of the power of judicial review that the Constitution extends to this Court. — Byron White
If there are such things as political axioms, the propriety of the judicial power of a government being co-extensive with its legislative, may be ranked among the number. — Alexander Hamilton
Judicial Branch Quotes
To consider judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. — Thomas Jefferson
. . . [The Judicial Branch] may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments. — Alexander Hamilton
It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is...If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each...This is of the very essence of judicial duty. — John Marshall
When justices seize authority from the other branches of the federal government, as well as state and local governments, under the rubric of judicial review, that’s tyranny. — Mark Levin
The International Court of Justice (a.k.a. World Court) is the judicial branch of the United Nations and in the early 1990's a campaign started and it was supported by civil society non-governmental groups around the world. — John Burroughs
One single object . . . [will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation. — Thomas Jefferson
In our system of government, the judicial and legislative branches have different roles. Judges are not politicians. Judges must decide cases, not champion causes. Judges must settle legal disputes, not pursue agendas. Judges must interpret and apply the law, not make the law. — Orrin Hatch
What's brilliant about the United States system of government is separation of power. Not only the executive, legislative, judicial branches, but also the independence of the military from civilians, an independent media and press, an independent central bank. — Feisal Abdul Rauf
It's really not a stretch. The checks and balances are the same. The drums are the executive branch. The jazz orchestra is the legislative branch. Logic and reason are like jazz solos. The bass player is the judicial branch. One our greatest ever is Milt Hinton, and his nickname is "The Judge." — Wynton Marsalis
[R]efusing or not refusing to execute a law to stamp it with its final character . . . makes the Judiciary department paramount in fact to the Legislature, which was never intended and can never be proper. — James Madison
People Writing About Independent Judiciary
More Independent Judiciary Quotes
I believe Watergate shows that the system did work. Particularly the Judiciary and the Congress, and ultimately an independent prosecutor working in the Executive Branch. — Bob Woodward
New York [cannot] remain the center of commerce and capital for this continent, unless it has an independent bar and an honest judiciary. — Samuel J. Tilden
An independent judiciary does not mean judges independent of the Constitution from which they derive their power or independent of the laws that they are sworn to uphold. — Thomas Sowell
In Iran, there is no freedom of the press, no freedom of speech, no independent judiciary, no free elections. There is no freedom of religion - not even for Shiites, who are forced by Irans theocracy to adhere to one narrow set of official rules. — Elliott Abrams
Slavery tolerates no freedom of the press, no freedom of speech, no freedom of opinion. — Hinton Rowan Helper
My first endeavor was to save the core of the German system of justice: the independent judiciary. — Hans Frank
The Constitution of India seeks to guarantee respect for the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary, and the integrity of the electoral process. But time and again, provisions of the Constitution of India have been flagrantly violated in Kashmir, and the ideals that it enshrines have been forgotten. — Nyla Ali Khan
For the first half of this century, High Court judges have been cautious to the point of timidity in expressing any criticism of governmental action; the independence of the judiciary has been of a decidedly subordinate character. — Ferdinand Mount
What the framers of the Constitution tried to achieve when they wrote that Constitution back in the 1700s was an independent federal judiciary. They wanted federal judges to be appointed by the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and to serve for good behavior. — Sandra Day O'Connor
Israel is a democratic state with an independent judiciary, a free press and a diverse population of many cultures, religions and creeds. — Jonathan Sacks
The crisis of modern democracy is a profound one. Free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities available on sale to the highest bidder. — Arundhati Roy
My government has promised to comprehensively respect the independence of the judiciary. — Victor Ponta
The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric. A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government. — Thomas Jefferson
There is no rule of law in Zimbabwe; there's selective application of the rule of law. Patrick Chinamasa, who is the minister of justice, destroyed the independent judiciary. — Roy Bennett
Deanell Tacha and I decided to write an editorial, because both of us have had experiences in countries where the rule of law is not strong. Uh, where there is civil war. Where there is disorder. And, it, it seemed to us important to underscore that this is a treasure, our rule of law, our judiciary independent from politics, and it's in jeopardy. — Martha Minow
What we are lacking in Burma is an independence effective judiciary, and unless we have all three of the democratic institutions - strong and healthy, we cannot say that our democratic processes (is complete). — Aung San Suu Kyi
My concerns through the years increased about the concerns of an independent judiciary and how we maintain it. Certainly in the states. I'm a product of state government in my own state of Arizona. And it seemed to me that the popular election of judges was creating major problems in many states, and we had improved the system in Arizona. And I thought the nation ought to at least rethink how we select our nation's trial judges in the states. — Sandra Day O'Connor
I think [John Adams's] influence on the federal Constitution was indirect. Many including James Madison mocked the first volume of Adams's Defence of the Constitutions of the United States in 1787. But his Massachusetts constitution was a model for those who thought about stable popular governments, with its separation of powers, its bicameral legislature, its independent judiciary, and its strong executive. — Gordon S. Wood
The Massachusetts constitution was written much later than the other revolutionary state constitutions, and thus it avoids some of the earlier mistakes. The executive is stronger, with a limited veto; the senate is more formidable; and the judiciary is independent. — Gordon S. Wood
I can say across Europe that many principles that have been taken for granted here around free speech, and around civil liberties and an independent judiciary, and fighting corruption, those are principles that, you know, not perfectly but generally, we have tried to apply not just in our own country but also with respect to our foreign policy. — Barack Obama
If, then, the courts of justice are to be considered as the bulwarks of a limited Constitution against legislative encroachments, this consideration will afford a strong argument for the permanent tenure of judicial offices, since nothing will contribute so much as this to that independent spirit in the judges which must be essential to the faithful performance of so arduous a duty. — Alexander Hamilton
Without justice being freely, fully, and impartially administered, neither our persons, nor our rights, nor our property, can be protected. And if these, or either of them, are regulated by no certain laws, and are subject to no certain principles, and are held by no certain tenure, and are redressed, when violated, by no certain remedies, society fails of all its value; and men may as well return to a state of savage and barbarous independence. — Joseph Story
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