Lyndon B. Johnson Quotes

Laws are subordinate to custom.

After 25-plus years as a lawyer, prosecutor, and defense attorney, I have developed a deep appreciation for both the wisdom of the law and the role that jurists play in framing the rights and responsibilities that define our society.

The law doesn't create a right.

I would like to see more judicial activism because I want to see more laws struck down.

The Constitution is not the only way we preserve rights in America. We have the common law and political action.

The best [legal] codes extant, if malignantly criticized, will be found to furnish matter for censure in every page …

When a government faces an evil that might be avoided, the usual pattern is to first debate whether or not the evil is real or imagined; then determine how evil it really is; then is it an appropriate function of government to avoid it? Then what are the alternative ways to avoid it? Then what are the costs to avoid it? And finally, is the benefit of avoiding the evil worth the cost? In those cases where it is, it is by this time too late to avoid the evil and discussions shift to ameliorating the evil.

The constitution would be based on the rights and duties of man and citizens; on civil liberty and equality; on popular sovereignty by representation; on an energetic and responsible executive government; on a fully unified administration … on the separation of church and state; and the right of the people to revise their own constitution.

As a country we have more of a political constitution than a legal one, and as such it operates via conventions and precedents.

The law is very special to me.

Courts do not make the law.

On the whole, we think of our consumers - other judges, lawyers, the public. The law that the Supreme Court establishes is the law that they must live by, so all things considered, it's better to have it clearer than confusing.

Many people feel that we need the rule of law to eliminate our problems. But is it more laws that we need? We have many laws - thousands upon thousands of them - but they are constantly being broken.

In the legislative arena, especially when the country is closely divided, compromises tend to be the rule the day. But when judges rule this or that policy unconstitutional, there's little room for compromise: One side must win, the other must lose.

Over time, yes, countries will need to look at specific GMO products like they look at drugs today, where they don't approve them all. They look hard at the safety and the testing. And they make sure that the benefits far outweigh any of the downsides.

If the concern is security, there needs to be evidence-backed policies to increase security and safety, while maintaining our liberties and freedoms. Policies that clamp down on freedoms and don't increase security empirically need to be outright rejected.

We are a country based on the rule of law.

We need a proper balance between rights and responsibilities in our laws.

Good legislation should bring clarity and not confusion.

I make no pretence at being well-versed in politics - it is all too often about personalities and emotion - but I do know a thing or two about our constitution, as I once trained to be a lawyer. Even a first-year law student learns that an overriding principle is that parliament is sovereign.

It's important to understand how Coinbase thinks about regulation and compliance in the digital currency space. As an exchange, we view compliance as key to digital currency's success.

In the absence of a written constitution, we still rely far too heavily in the U.K. on unwritten and unenforceable 'constitutional conventions.'

I admit my view of the world is colored by my legal and business experiences at Liberty.

The United States has so many laws, into the millions, that experts have lost track of just how many laws we have.

Our Constitution framers were men and women with great foresight. They understood the majesty of the rule of law, and of rule by laws.