Stories of law violations are weighed on a different set of scales in the Black mind than in the white. Petty crimes embarrass the... community and many people wistfully wonder why Negroes don't rob more banks, embezzle more funds and employ graft in the unions.... This ... appeals particularly to one who is unable to compete legally with his fellow citizens.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Rape is a culturally fostered means of suppressing women. Legally we say we deplore it, but mythically we romanticize and perpetua...te it, and privately we excuse and overlook it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
My dear Mr. District Attorney, your law is shockingly bad. I have the perfect alibi. I am legally dead. Your business is with the ...living.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Chippenhook was the home of Judge Theophilus Harrington, known for his trenchant reply to an irate slave-owner in a runaway slave ...case. Judge Harrington declared that the owner's claim to the slave was defective. The owner indignantly demanded to know what was lacking in his legally sound claim. The Judge exploded, 'A bill of sale, sir, from God Almighty!'LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
But you can assure Mother that all of her friends here will vote right ... not that we consider it a matter of great moment whethe...r spirituous liquor is sold legally in consequence of lax laws, or illegally in consequence of lax officers as would probably be the case (at least hereabouts) if no licenses were granted. But we should vote "anti" for the looks and name of the thing.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"Obscenity" is a legal term for a category of sexually explicit art and entertainment that the Supreme Court has said is without F...irst Amendment protection. According to those nine wise jurists, obscenity is sexually explicit material that lacks any serious artistic or other value, is patently offensive, and appeals to "shameful or morbid" sexual appetites, as judged by the standards of a particular community. Because pornographic works may arouse only healthy sexual urges, may have serious artistic value, and may not be considered patently offensive in a particular community, most pornography is not legally obscene.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Elderly gentlemen, gentle in all respects, kind to animals, beloved by children, and fond of music, are found in lonely corners of... the downs, hacking at sandpits or tussocks of grass, and muttering in a blind, ungovernable fury elaborate maledictions which could not be extracted from them by robbery or murder. Men who would face torture without a word become blasphemous at the short fourteenth. It is clear that the game of golf may well be included in that category of intolerable provocations which may legally excuse or mitigate behaviour not otherwise excusable.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The careers of Napoleon and de Gaulle bear comparison, though it is always unwise to take such imposed similarities too far. But n...evertheless, both their careers were born out of social upheaval and military disaster. It is astonishing that Napoleon, a mere youthful artillery officer from despised Corsica, should have pulled together a country reeling from the horrors of revolution; survived the ignominy of defeat in Egypt; created a new France, constitutionally, legally, and organizationally; brought emperors and kings to their knees; allied himself through marriage with one of the proudest European dynasties; fought a series of impeccably planned and devastatingly executed campaigns; had the whole world within his grasp ... and, so very nearly, held it there. It is equally extraordinary that Charles de Gaulle, a brilliant though suspect tank commander, should have snatched from the fall of France a personal triumph. Who else, one wonders, could have continued to assert the position of himself and his country in the face of dislike and mistrust? Who else, like Napoleon returning from Elba, could have emerged from the self-imposed exile of Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises to restore France's confidence? Both men were seized with the concept of la gloire. Both took that concept to the ultimate.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is a maxim among these lawyers, that whatever hath been done before, may legally be done again: and therefore they take special... care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and the general reason of mankind.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I am aware that I have been on many a man's premises, and might have been legally ordered off, but I am not aware that I have been... in many men's houses.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »