For centuries, everyone from Presidents to paupers have been talking about equal justice, what it means to go without it, and the difficult and as yet unsuccessful struggle to achieve this noble goal. Occasionally, words are written or uttered which are worthy of repetition -- because of the content, or the elegance of the language, or sometimes because of the stature of the source. Some of these quotes are notable because the words can move us to action. Others teach us or warn us or even amuse us. The National Equal Justice Library has begun collecting some of the more impressive quotations we have managed to cull from speeches, judicial opinions, books and articles.  

We anticipate those visiting this section of the "Equal Justice Update" website may gain inspiration or insight from reading some of these quotations. In addition, you may be able to use one or more to spice up a report, an article, or a speech. We hope this compendium of quotes is helpful in that sense, too.

We recognize this compendium is incomplete at this stage and probably never will include all the notable quotations on this subject that have appeared in publications or speeches over the centuries. So we encourage visitors to this website to send us their favorite quotes that in anyway relate to legal services, indigent defense, or the entire subject of equal access to justice. If the quote has any relevance, we will add it to this website.  

"There can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has."

- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, Griffin v. Illinois, 373 U.S. 12,(1964),

"Reason and reflection require us to recognize that in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him. This seems to us to be an obvious truth."

- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 344 (1963),

"The Fourteenth Amendment, in declaring that no State 'shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws,' undoubtedly intended . . . that equal protection and security should be given to all [and] they should have like access to the courts of the country for the protection of their persons and property, the prevention and redress of wrongs, and the enforcement of contracts...."

- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Steven Field, Barbier v. Connolly, 113 U.S. 27, 35 (1885),

"If the motto ‘and justice for all’ becomes ‘and justice for those who can afford it’, we threaten the very underpinnings of our social contract."

- Chief Justice Ronald George California Supreme Court, Annual "State of Judiciary" Speech, 2001

"Imperfect as was the ancient common-law system, harsh as it was in many of its methods and measures, it would strike one with surprise to be credibly informed that the common-law courts...shut their doors upon...poor suitors...Even greater would be the reproach to the system of jurisprudence of the state of California if it could be truly declared that in this twentieth century...it had said the same thing."

- California Supreme Court Justice Frederick Henshaw, Martin v. Superior Court, 176 Cal.289, 294 (1917),

"In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful."

- U. S Supreme Court Justice John Harlan, Plessey v Ferguson [dissent], 163 U.S. 537, 559-560 (1896),

"Perhaps no characteristic of an organized and cohesive society is more fundamental than its erection and enforcement of a system of rules...enabling [its members] to...settle their differences in an orderly, predictable manner. Without such a 'legal system,' social organization and cohesion are virtually impossible...[I]t is this...that allows society ot reap the benefits of rejecting what political theorists call the 'state of nature.'

"Without this guarantee that one may not be deprived of his rights, neither liberty nor property, without due process of law, the State's monopoly over techniques for binding conflict resolution could hardly be said to be acceptable under our scheme of things. Only by providing that the social enforcement mechanism must function strictly within these bounds can we hope to maintain an ordered society that is also just."

- Supreme Court Justice John Harlan [Jr.], Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371, 374-75 (1971),

"Whatever disagreement there may be as to the scope of the phrase "due process of law" there can be no doubt that it embraces the fundamental conception of a fair trial, with opportunity to be heard."

- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Frank v Mangum, 237 U.S. 309, 347 (1915),

"The rule of law does not mean that the protection of the law must be available only to a fortunate few or that the law should be allowed to be prostituted by vested interests for protecting and upholding the status quo under the guise of enforcement of civil and political rights. The poor too have civil and political rights and the rule of law is meant for them also, though today it exists only on paper and not in reality."

- Supreme Court of India, PUDR v. Union of India (AIR 1982 SC 1473, 1477),

"Equal justice under law is not just a caption on the facade of the Supreme Court building. It is perhaps the most inspiring ideal of our society . . . It is fundamental that justice should be the same, in substance and availability, without regard to economic status."

- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, Jr., ,

"Equality before the law in a true democracy is a matter of right. It cannot be a matter of charity or of favor or of grace or of discretion."

- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Wiley Rutledge, Speech to American Bar Association, September 29, 1941

"Poverty or wealth can make all the differences in securing the substance or only the shadow of constitutional protections."

- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Wiley B. Rutledge, Foster v. Illinois, 332 U.S. 134. 142 (1947) dissenting opinion,

"The real practical blessing of our Bill of Rights is in its provision for fixed procedure securing a fair hearing by independent courts to each individual...But if the individual in seeking to protect himself is without money to avail himself of such procedure, the Constitution and the procedure made inviolable by it do not practically work for the equal benefit of all. Something must be devised by which everyone, however lowly and however poor, however unable by his means to employ a lawyer and pay court costs, shall be furnished the opportunity to set fixed machinery of justice going."

- William Howard Taft Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, Preface to Smith and Bradway, LEGAL AID WORK IN THE UNITED STATES (1926),

"Without expressing a final personal conclusion on the subject, it seems to me that ultimately these instrumentalities [legal aid] will have to be made part of the administration of justice and paid for out of public funds."

- William Howard Taft Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, Forward to "Legal Aid Work", THE ANNALS, Volume CXXIV, page iv (1926),

The [European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms] is intended to guarantee not rights that are theoretical or illusory but rights that are practical and effecive. This is particularly so of the right to access to the courts in view of the prominent place held in a democratic society by the right to a fair trial . . . . The court concludes . . . that the possibility to appear in person before the [trial court] does not provide the applicant with an effective right of access . . . . There has accordingly been a breach of [the right to a "fair hearing" in this civil case].

- European Court on Human Rights, Airey v. Ireland, 32 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) , (1979)