It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom.
The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.
— Valerie McCabe, Yale '91. I've got a special rate for visitors, and I know I can win your case.
— You don't even know my case.
— The Madison case? Nuisance suit. Happens to visitors all the time. Fact is J. J. Madison doesn't even have a cat. He's allergic. I could have it thrown out in no time.
— Wait, he never had a cat? So, why's he going to sue somebody for it?
— Because he can. Every adult citizen of Morlaw is a lawyer, so everybody sues everybody else. It doesn't matter if there's a cause. It's how we ensure that everyone makes a living off their profession.
— Yeah, but that's insane.
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.
Trial moves rapidly on when the judge has determined the sentence beforehand.
The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box.
As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it — whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.
He who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client.
— What? We're under oath.
— No, we're not. Do you even know what an oath is?
— Uh, yeah. Courthouse. We're under it.
And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.
The court not only wishes to be fair to all of the parties, but to maintain the appearance of fairness as well.
A fair jury can always render a just verdict.