Not a law firm in the entire city of New York bid for my employment as a lawyer when I earned my degree.
Ruth Bader GinsburgRead
People who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty.
Interpretation
Fair legal representation can significantly influence the outcome of a trial, potentially saving lives.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg emphasizes the critical importance of competent legal representation in the judicial system. This quote underscores the idea that individuals who have access to effective legal counsel are less likely to receive the death penalty, highlighting systemic inequalities in the legal process that can ultimately determine life or death.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about legal reforms during a public forum on justice.
Not a law firm in the entire city of New York bid for my employment as a lawyer when I earned my degree.
If you want to influence people, you want them to accept your suggestions, you don't say, 'You don't know how to use the English language,' or 'How could you make that argument?' It will be welcomed much more if you have a gentle touch than if you are aggressive.
I try to teach through my opinions, through my speeches, how wrong it is to judge people on the basis of what they look like, color of their skin, whether they're men or women.
The worst times were the years I was alone. The image to the public entering the courtroom was eight men, of a certain size, and then this little woman sitting to the side. That was not a good image for the public to see.
A constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom.
My resume showed membership on both the Harvard and Columbia Law Reviews, a credit impressive abroad where it was not generally known that Law Reviews were student-operated publications.
One of the things that pains me is we have so tragically underestimated the trauma, the hardship we create in this country when we treat people unfairly, when we incarcerate them unfairly, when we condemn them unfairly.
I knew then and I know now, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it.
The reasonableness of the agency of the national courts in cases in which the state tribunals cannot be supposed to be impartial, speaks for itself. No man ought certainly to be a judge in his own cause, or in any cause in respect to which he has the least interest or bias.
A private soldier has as much right to justice as a major-general.
I believe that he who has less in life should have more in law.
Rule-following, legal precedence, and political consistency are not more important than right, justice and plain common-sense.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.