How The Courts Protect You

"Happily, most Americans pass their entire lifetime without seeing a court in session, except perhaps when they serve as jurors or are called to testify as witnesses. The administration of justice often seems remote and vague. And yet, it is the system of courts, with their hundreds of judges, which has made American democracy work. Without judges and juries to pass on the facts and apply the law, and without the checking of errors by higher courts to which appeals are taken, and without a Supreme Court at Washington, ever mindful of the tendencies of human nature to grasp for power and oppress minorities, our precious liberties would be as chaff in the wind. Equal justice before the law is our cherished ideal. Rich and poor, the alien and the citizen, men and women of every race or creed find our courts open to receive their pleas; and it is commonplace to see the lowly prevail over the mighty as our courts grind out their judgments."

Alumni Offset Inc. & Richard Hall, 1953