Jeffrey Toobin Quotes & Sayings

this is a girl who did drugs, who fucked her high school teacher, who chose Berkeley over Stanford. Maybe she really could be one of us. — Jeffrey Toobin

It's always interesting to see what judges do when their legal philosophy conflicts with their political views. — Jeffrey Toobin

Students follow rules. Students complete assignments. The job of students - in part, at least - is to please their teachers. Now, I realize I may be exaggerating a little here, but basically I think I'm right: students do what they're told. — Jeffrey Toobin

The assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy led directly to the passage of a historic law, the Gun Control Act of 1968. — Jeffrey Toobin

He did what good lawyers always do. He shifted his argument in the direction his audience was already going. — Jeffrey Toobin

Judges can receive gifts as long as they report them. — Jeffrey Toobin

Cameras in the courtroom is a great idea. — Jeffrey Toobin

He denounced self-pity and pitied himself. — Jeffrey Toobin

There were times when David Souter thought of Bush v. Gore and wept, — Jeffrey Toobin

Toughened or coarsened by their worldly lives, the other dissenters could shrug and move on, but Souter couldn't. His whole life was being a judge. — Jeffrey Toobin

Courtney Vance and I are college classmates, weirdly enough. We're both Harvard class of 1982. Courtney, as a work-study job, was a typesetter at the Harvard 'Crimson,' the newspaper where I worked. — Jeffrey Toobin

According to the telephone poll, a full 40 percent of black women felt that the use of physical force was appropriate in a marriage. And black women especially could not abide Marcia Clark. — Jeffrey Toobin

He saw the Constitution as the vehicle to keep ecumenical passions in check. — Jeffrey Toobin

The role of the defense is to be an advocate for their client, regardless of whether he did it or not, within the bounds of the law. — Jeffrey Toobin

The United States, like any great power, is always going to have an intelligence operation, and some electronic surveillance is obligatory in the modern world. — Jeffrey Toobin

In this way, the Hearsts became the symbol of the overly lenient parents of the era and a counterpoint to the Republican administration's voice of discipline and order. — Jeffrey Toobin

My own career reflects a strange dichotomy between the world we've long known and the world that will become. — Jeffrey Toobin

The result always mattered more than the rhetoric. — Jeffrey Toobin

sheepish, clarification. "Now, that plastic," Clark said. "Do you happen to — Jeffrey Toobin

The biggest police gun battle ever to take place on American soil had begun, and it was on live television. - — Jeffrey Toobin

Rehnquist was just reflecting his shifting role, from outsider to the institutional embodiment of the Court. — Jeffrey Toobin

I think trials are inherently dramatic and interesting and are always going to be part of the news. — Jeffrey Toobin

For a long time, the Court has moved toward outlawing all forms of racial preference, including affirmative action, and Obama seems accepting, even supportive, of the change. — Jeffrey Toobin

I grew up, like most people in my generation, watching John Travolta. I was thrilled to meet him. — Jeffrey Toobin

Even in Madison's day, the practice of gerrymandering for partisan advantage was familiar. In the late seventeen-eighties, there were claims that Patrick Henry had tried to gerrymander Madison himself out of the First Congress. The term was coined during Madison's Presidency, to mock Elbridge Gerry, the governor of Massachusetts, who in 1811 approved an election district that was said to look like a salamander. — Jeffrey Toobin

Obviously, a big part of the American Revolution was there would be no Church of England the way there was in England. There was a specific attempt not to have an established church. — Jeffrey Toobin

on the government — Jeffrey Toobin

In the end, notwithstanding a surreal detour in the 1970s, Patricia led the life she for which she was destined back in Hillsborough. The story of Patricia Hearst, as extraordinary as it once was, had a familiar, even predictable ending. She did not turn into a revolutionary. She turned into her mother. — Jeffrey Toobin

When Obama took office, Republican appointees controlled ten of the thirteen circuit courts of appeals; Democratic appointees now constitute a majority in nine circuits. Because federal judges have life tenure, nearly all of Obama's judges will continue serving well after he leaves office. — Jeffrey Toobin

To be sure, following her arrest in 1975, she was unlikely to commit these kinds of crimes again. If the United States were a country that routinely forgave the trespasses of such people, there would be little remarkable about the mercy she received following her conviction. But the United States is not such a country; the prisons teem with convicts who were also led astray and who committed lesser crimes than Patricia. These unfortunate souls have no chance at even a single act of clemency, much less an unprecedented two. Rarely have the benefits of wealth, power, and renown been as clear as they were in the aftermath of Patricia's conviction. — Jeffrey Toobin

We have never had a president of the United States or a nominee of a major party who was a Supreme Court law clerk. — Jeffrey Toobin

There is always sleaze in the news. And you know what? The news is always a combination of things that are interesting and things that are important. — Jeffrey Toobin

Everyone wants to be paid well - I know that I certainly do. But there are lots of other satisfactions that we get from our work. To feel needed. To feel accomplishment. To believe that our work matters. Being a lawyer gives you a rare chance to experience that kind of success. — Jeffrey Toobin

Beyond diversity, the story of Obama's influence on the courts is more complex. Indeed, it could serve as a metaphor for his Presidency: symbolically rich but substantively hazy. Obama took office after years of intense conservative focus on the courts. — Jeffrey Toobin

I'm a big fan of good grades. But I am going to suggest to you that you will find that the skills of a student are of somewhat less use to you once you get out into what is sometimes referred to as 'the real world.' — Jeffrey Toobin

To a degree that can scarcely be imagined today, the bomb became a common mode of American political expression. In 1972, there were 1,962 actual and attempted bombings in the United States, with twenty-five people killed; in 1973, 1,955 bombings, with twenty-two killed; in 1974, 2,044 bombings, with twenty-four killed. The — Jeffrey Toobin

For someone who has been so important to my career, I have had absolutely no interaction with O.J. Simpson one-on-one in my whole life. I've tried many times. I have written him in prison, I've had other contact ... but he never responded, so I have never had a conversation with O.J. Simpson, never met the guy. — Jeffrey Toobin

Purple prose attracts attention more than converts. — Jeffrey Toobin

One of the main things I know about O.J. Simpson is that he is a compulsive talker. So if I were to ask him one question, I would get 45 minutes on the history of the case. It would be irrelevant what I would ask him - he would just start talking. — Jeffrey Toobin

When will I go home?" Patricia asked. "What, do you want to go home for your birthday?" Cinque sneered. Patricia would turn twenty on February 20. This was, perhaps, the most unnerving thing that Cinque had said to her. He knew her birthday. It underlined that this was no random attack. They had been researching her life, which was chilling. - — Jeffrey Toobin

The transformation of the D.C. Circuit has been replicated in federal courts around the country. Obama has had two hundred and eighty judges confirmed, which represents about a third of the federal judiciary. — Jeffrey Toobin

Rodney King is a progenitor of all these cell phone videos that we have. It was unusual that a person had a video camera to take a picture of the Rodney King beating. Now, of course, everybody has a phone, and that has been one of the key factors in all the new attention to the issue. — Jeffrey Toobin