We cannot forget the need to use the law as a shield, but we must remember other forces of the law.
I want to do what I can to make the law make sense to citizens and businesses alike. I want the laws to assist them in worthwhile endeavors, not to stand as bureaucratic obstacles.
America, in all its institutions, whether it be the family or government, has forgotten and neglected its children.
I just don't like greedy, indifferent, selfish lawyers. And there are not that many of them.
I didn't like the Feds coming to town when I was in Miami, telling me what to do. I didn't like them coming to town and thinking that they knew more about Miami than I do.
I love lawyers. And I like to talk to lawyers, and I like to engage in a spirited discussion with lawyers.
All lawyers are going to have to - if we really want to attain civil justice - address the issue of how complicated we have made the laws: what we have done to ensnarl the American people in bureaucratic rules and regulations that make access to services or compliance with the law sometimes difficult, if not impossible.
We've got to look to our educational programs and focus on doing what we can to stem violence in the schools.
Let us develop an agenda for children that says we can do something about teen pregnancy. Let us make sure that parents are old enough, wise enough, and financially able to take care of their children.
Juveniles as well as adults need to know they're going to be punished for their violent acts.
Do and act on what you believe to be right, and you'll wake up the next morning feeling good about yourself.
One of the reasons I love the law is because I was raised in family - my grandfather was a lawyer, but more importantly, my grandmother was his secretary. And she taught me that lawyers were some of the most civil, most courteous - and in those days, most courtly - people that she knew.
It's fine to get paid and get a big verdict, but to go out and represent people, sometimes in unglamorous ways, is really what lawyering is all about.
We recognize that violence is a learned behavior. One of the best classrooms for learning violence is in the home.
I made a promise to myself when I graduated from law school that I would never do anything that I didn't enjoy doing, and almost every day of the year since that June of 1963, I have awakened glad that I was going to work, glad that I was going to court, glad that I was going to grapple with a problem.
The Bar Association can do so much in teaching people how to resolve conflicts without knives and guns and fists.
Young people have such tremendous energy.
What makes our country unique is its commitment to being open, to making its leaders accountable.
I would like to visit with people who are so interesting and so... and there are so many wonderful people out there that I would love to have the chance to talk to for a longer time.
We want to look at everything we can do that's right and proper under federal law, and with federal laws to see that the children of America are given a chance to grow as strong, constructive, healthy human beings. It's the best investment we can possibly make in America.
Sometimes we're tone-deaf in Washington, and we listen only to ourselves. We do not hear the cry of people who want answers, want action, want protection, and have some darn good ideas as to how to provide it if only we would listen.
The keystone to justice is the belief that the legal system treats all fairly.
One of the problems in America is that everybody focuses on their own narrow little bit of the problem without connecting punishment and prevention together, without connecting the schools and the police together, without connecting the pediatricians and the social workers together.
We're all in this together, and we all have to make an investment in our most precious possession and in the foundation of our future: our young people.
