Judge advocate

“ No advocate is admitted in petty courts, small towns, or villages; where the poverty of the people, and, for the most part, the low value of the matter contested, make despatch absolutely necessary. In those places the parties shall appear in person, and the judge make a summary decision. ”

“ Under the impetus for reform following World War I, the original draft of what became the 8th Article provided that every general court-martial should have a judge advocate whose duties were to be similar to those of the 'law member,' as finally provided for. The proposed Article would have provided further that such judge advocate of the court be a member of the Judge Advocate General's Department or an officer whose qualifications were approved by the Judge Advocate General. ”

“ It creates a ministerial officer without legal responsibilities, and necessarily commits to his hands high interests of the government, and to some extent the rights and reputation of individuals, to be treated and observed without any stronger guaranty of fidelity than his own sense or impression of moral obligation. In the important duties of the judge-advocate as recorder, adviser, and prosecutor, the utmost deference to the dignity of the court should be apparent ”

“ We find illustrations of much the same kind in the profession of an advocate. In the interests of the proper administration of justice it is of the utmost importance that every cause, however defective, and every criminal, however bad, should be fully defended, and it is therefore indispensable that there should be a class of men entrusted with this duty. It is the business of the judge and of the jury to decide on the merits of the case, but in order that they should discharge this function it is necessary that the arguments on both sides should be laid before them in the strongest form. ”

“ When a group of facts come before an English Court for adjudication, the whole course of the discussion between the judge and the advocate assumes that no question is, or can be, raised which will call for the application of any principles but old ones, or any distinctions but such as have long since been allowed. ”

“ I can assure your Lordship," wrote Bent, "that the comfort and happiness of any Judge-Advocate, nay, even the proper discharge of his duty, must depend entirely upon the personal character of the person in whose hands the executive power of the Colony happens to be vested."
The duties of the office he considered too heavy for one man, and in many ways inconsistent with one another. Thus in the Criminal Court he acted as judge in cases for which he had himself prepared the indictment, and in which he had the conduct of the prosecution. ”

“ The successful promoted advocate, who in Britain and the United States of America is the judge, and whose habits and interests all incline him to disregard the realities of the case in favour of the points in the forensic game, then adjudicates upon the contest. ”

“ An advocate like these his betters?
Then let him not his time employ
To useless ends in learning letters.
Ammianus.
XI. 251
The parties were as deaf as deaf could be,
The judge was far the deafest of the three.
Said plaintiff, "Sir, I ask for five months' rent."
Defendant, "Grinding corn all night I spent." [86]
"Why," quoth the judge, "dispute? Your mother's claim
Is good, and you must both support the dame."
Nicarchus.
XI. 350
Remember justice and her yoke, and know
That 'gainst the wicked votes of "Guilty" go. ”

“ Thus, judges are being appointed from among lawyers belonging to different parties in the confidence that-and this confidence has not been in vain–when a judge sits on his rostrum he will forget politics and personal considerations in the discharge of his sworn duty to do justice to every man. ”

“ In order to inhibit, summarily, a group seeking to propagate even the least irritating views, a trial judge need only give a quick glance at the Court's opinion to recognize the numerous options now open to him. ”

“ We prefer the explanation we have given to this extraordinary and absurd conclusion, as it respects the proceedings of a respectable court, and one possessing the highest jurisdiction in the State.
The change of opinion upon a question of law, or in the construction of a statute, is no disparagement to a judge, or a court, however eminent or experienced. The change is oftentimes a matter of commendation, rather than of reproach. ”

“ When the responsibilities of lawmaker, prosecutor, judge, jury and disciplinarian are thrust upon a judge he is obviously incapable of holding the scales of justice perfectly fair and true and reflecting impartially on the guilt or innocence of the accused. ”

“ A judge is prohibited from treating a case lightly or talking about useless matters in court. A judge should view it as if a sword has been placed on his shoulder and as if hell is open underneath him. ”

“ It may be added that decisions on a point not material to the cause are generally made without the benefit of previous argument by counsel. The lawyers will naturally address themselves to the controlling questions, and if well trained will see what these are quite as clearly as the court. It is the argument at the bar, in which different views of law are presented and each defended by men of learning and ability, which enables the judge, after hearing both sides and weighing all that is said in behalf of one against all that is said in behalf of the other, to come to the true conclusion. ”

“ You will be the first public defender on the court. You understand our justice system uniquely through the eyes of people who couldn’t afford a lawyer. They couldn’t afford their own lawyer, and you advocated for them. ”

“ It has been idly said, That a Reviewer acts in a judicial capacity, and that his conduct should be regulated by the same rules by which the Judge of a Civil Court is governed: that he should rid himself of every bias; be patient, cautious, sedate, and rigidly impartial; that he should not seek to shew off himself, and should check every disposition to enter into the case as a partizan. ”

“ The judicial process demands that a judge move within the framework of relevant legal rules and the covenanted modes of thought for ascertaining them. He must think dispassionately and submerge private feeling on every aspect of a case. There is a good deal of shallow talk that the judicial robe does not change the man within it. ”

“ But where there is a matter which would subject the person in question to a criminal proceeding, in my opinion, a different principle must be applied. We are to see that the officers of the court are proper persons to be trusted by the court with regard to the interests of suitors, and we are to look to the character and position of the persons, and judge of the acts committed by them, upon the same principle as if we were considering whether or not a person is fit to become an attorney. ”

“ Comment on what a judge has done-criticism of the judicial process in a particular case after it has exhausted itself-no matter how ill-informed or irresponsible or misrepresentative, is part of the precious right of the free play of opinion. ”

“ The movement, which rests on the assumption that the judge is wise and impartial, should make us quick to upset his determinations in the few cases which clearly demonstrate light regard for the principles that should guide a responsible jurist. ”

“ Suppose the judge is not a simpleton nor a drunkard, but is only an ordinary lawyer and a political partisan, and appointed to his office because he is a fawning sycophant, and will interpret the law to suit the ambition of the government—a thing that has happened in this city. Is he to lay down the law for the jurors, who aim only to live in honourable morality, to hurt no one, and give every man his due?
Suppose the attorneys at the bar know the law better than the attorney on the bench—a thing that daily happens—are not the jurors to decide for themselves? ”

“ As this Court has explained, “no case or controversy” exists “between a judge who adjudicates claims under a statute and a litigant who attacks the constitutionality of the statute.” Pulliam v. Allen, 466 U. S. 522, 538, n. ”

“ Its utterance is the guide for the court, which is always subordinate to it, and bound to enforce every law passed by it.39 How different from the authoritative position of the courts in the United States, where there is no department of the government in which sound political views are more valuable than in the judiciary. No lawyer can be found with the requisite strength of mind and character to make a good judge on the Supreme Bench who is not a man of clear, well-defined, and vigorous political opinions. ”

“ 'Sir,' said Mr Johnson, 'a lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it honestly. The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the judge. ”

“ A judge, or any person acting by authority as such, where he has over the subject-matter, and over the person, a general jurisdiction which he has not exceeded, will not be liable to have his judgment examined in an action brought against himself ”

“ What judge of any court, what lawyer who wished to ascertain the true doctrine of a case, would search for the private opinions of the judge when the reports bristled with adjudicated cases from which he could learn the true doctrine which he had expressed under oath and in the discharge of his duties? When you search for the opinions of our ancestors to guide us as legislators, look at their conduct as legislators, and not their private opinions. Every lawyer, every sensible man, every rational man, knows that that is the true test of the opinions of our ancestors upon a given subject. ”

“ No one who has had experience on the Bench in reaching judicial conclusions and who has thereafter been obliged in an executive position to reach important, and it may be final, conclusions upon questions involving both fact and law, can fail to recognize and acknowledge the powerful influence for justice that honorable and learned members of the law exert in the causes which they present to a court. The counsel who argues the losing side of a case contributes quite as much to the assistance of the court as the successful advocate. ”

“ I hesitate to classify judges as policymakers, even at this level of abstraction. Although some part of a judge's task may be to fill in the interstices of legislative enactments, the primary task of a judicial officer is to apply rules reflecting the policy choices made by, or on behalf of, those elected to legislative and executive positions. A judge is first and foremost one who resolves disputes, and not one charged with the duty to fashion broad policies establishing the rights and duties of citizens. ”

“ I know that a good deal of latitude is allowed to advocates, when opening a cause in a private court, to indulge themselves in their narratives leading to the charges they intend to bring. They are not always called to the strictest account for such prefatory matter, because the court, when it comes to judge, sifts and distinguishes it from the points to be strictly proved, and on whose merits the cause relies. ”

“ But there may be occasions when it would be very desirable that a jury should be interposed between a party to a cause and the presiding Judge; and certainly if the jurisdiction of these Courts is extended, it will be most desirable that suitors should be able to satisfy themselves that every opportunity is open to them of obtaining justice.”
“For my own part,” said I, “I would as soon have the decision of one honest man as of twelve honest men, and perhaps I would prefer it. ”

“ The judge who moulds the law by the method of philosophy may be satisfying an intellectual craving for symmetry of form and substance. But he is doing something more. He is keeping the law true in its response to a deep-seated and imperious sentiment. Only experts perhaps may be able to gauge the quality of his work and appraise its significance. But their judgment, the judgment of the lawyer class, will spread to others, and tinge the common consciousness and the common faith. ”

“ For fifteen years I have been trying to do what a judge ought, but have never till the last six months felt underneath and around me, in the degree that every judge has a right to feel it, the upbuoying might of the people in the line of full and resolute enforcement of the law. ”

“ A judge has been a counsel, and he may carry to the bench some of the professional prejudices of the bar. Indeed, if you consider the absurd license permitted to counsel in their treatment of witnesses, and the hostile attitude adopted by some judges toward medical and other scientific men who have to give their evidence, you will see that the judicial mind is not always quite as judicial as one would wish, especially when the privileges and immunities of the profession are concerned. Now, your appearance in person to conduct your case must, unavoidably, cause some inconvenience to the Court. ”

“ The submission of all questions to a body of trained and practised judges, not so liable to be swayed by passion, interest, and prejudice as a jury, or unaided by the counsel and assistance of others, like a single judge, but bringing to the solution of every issue a multitude of counsellors, among whom, if anywhere on earth, is impartiality and wisdom. ”

“ You were certainly free to conduct the appeal yourself, without employing an advocate, but then you must do it in the usual form. Courts of justice, all over the world, are held by the laws to proceed according to certain forms, which the good of the suitors themselves requires they should not be permitted to depart from. ”

“ In the assessment of evidence and the other elements which enter into a judicial judgment, a federal judge may make judgments different from those which a state judge may make. Federal judges are perhaps to be regarded as men apart-judges who cannot be trusted to judge fairly and impartially. ”