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?Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere?

By Peter Lattman

Martin Luther King wasn’t a lawyer, but many of his speeches and writings touched on the rule of law in a big way. Plus, he was awarded doctor of law degrees from several universities, including Hofstra University in 1965, the same year the Law Blog’s mother earned her undergraduate degree from the school and listened to King’s commencement speech. Go Flying Dutchmen!

Here are a few MLK, Jr. legal gems, courtesy of the “Yale Book of Quotations” by Yale Law librarian Fred Shapiro:

Government action is not the whole answer to the present crisis, but it is an important partial answer. Morals cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. The law cannot make an employer love me, but it can keep him from refusing to hire me because of the color of my skin.

– Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, ch. II (1958)

Judicial decrees may not change the heart; but they can restrain the heartless.

– Speech, Nashville, Tenn., 27 Dec. 1962

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

– “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” 16 Apr. 1963

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

– “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” 16, Apr. 1963

Enjoy the holiday weekend! Go Gints! See you on Tuesday!

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 18, 2008 (boomark / email).