The law itself is on trial quite as much as the cause which is to be decided.
Harlan F. StoneRead
If a juror feels that the statute involved in any criminal offence is unfair, or that it infringes upon the defendant's natural god-given unalienable or constitutional rights, then it is his duty to affirm that the offending statute is really no law at all and that the violation of it is no crime at all, for no one is bound to obey an unjust law.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the moral responsibility of individuals to reject unjust laws.
Harlan F. Stone's quote underscores the principle that individuals have a duty to question and disobey laws that they believe are unfair or violate fundamental rights. It suggests that the legitimacy of any law depends on its adherence to justice and the rights of individuals, and that obeying unjust laws is not only unnecessary but also immoral.
In practice
In a discussion about civil disobedience during a law class.
The law itself is on trial quite as much as the cause which is to be decided.
And what sort of lives do these people, who pose as being moral, lead themselves? My dear fellow, you forget that we are in the native land of the hypocrite.
The roots of all living things are tied together. Deep in the ground of being, they tangle and embrace. This understanding is expressed in the term nonduality. If we look deeply, we find that we do not have a separate self-identity, a self that does not include sun and wind, earth and water, creatures and plants, and one another.
We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
One as deformed and horrible as myself, could not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects... with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being.
We must admit with humility that, while number is purely a product of our minds, space has a reality outside our minds, so that we cannot completely prescribe its properties a priori.
When Alex left for Alaska," Franz remembers, "I prayed. I asked God to keep his finger on the shoulder of that one; I told him that boy was special. But he let Alex die. So on December 26, when I learned what happened, I renounced the Lord. I withdrew my church membership and became an atheist. I decided I couldn't believe in a God who would let something that terrible happen to a boy like Alex.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.