"In a democracy, the law should never be secret."

[whttevrr]

34. Wow... thanks for the awesome quote!

I like this guy. He had a lot of courage to declare the king to be subject to the law in the 1500's. I am surprised he was not killed.

wiki

As Chief Justice, Coke restricted the use of the ex officio (Star Chamber) oath and, in the Case of Proclamations and Dr. Bonham's Case, declared the king to be subject to the law, and the laws of Parliament to be void if in violation of "common right and reason"

Herman Melville's use of the quote in this context seems eerily apropos today.


White-Jacket: Or The World In A Man-Of-War By Herman Melville

What can be expected from a court whose deeds are done in the darkness of the recluse courts of the Spanish Inquisition? When that darkness is solemnised by an oath on the Bible? When an oligarchy of epaulets sits upon the bench, and a plebian top-man, without a jury, stands judicially naked at the bar?

In view of these things, and especially in view of the fact that, in several cases, the degree of punishment inflicted upon a man-of-war's-man is absolutely left to the discretion of the court, what shame should American legislators take to themselves, that with perfect truth we may apply to the entire body of the American man-of-war's-men that infallible principle of Sir Edward Coke: "It is one of the genuine marks of servitude to have law either concealed or precarious." But still better may we subscribe to the saying of Sir Mathew Hale in his History of the Common Law, that "the Martial Law, being based upon no settled principles, is, in truth and reality, no law but something indulged rather than allowed as a law."

#secretlawsucks