Do you believe that no man is above the law ?

[kentuck]

Not even the president of the United States? Not even the advisor to the president of the United States? Can you envision a shadow of the blind-folded lady of justice casting such a giant shadow that a little chimp emperor looks up in horror at the size of such a lady? The shadow of the scales alone would cover the entire ground on which he would stand. But he is determined to fight justice with PR, propaganda, and lies when necessary. Justice will not be denied, Mr. Chimp.

[James T. Kirk]

1. No man is above the law!

Jesus would be above the law, though. He's both God and man.

[KansDem]

3. Self deleted

Posted in wrong place

[James T. Kirk]

11. I'm going to modify that.

Although Jesus was above the law, he humbled himself and made himself subject to the law, even to the point of death on a cross. Now as the resurrected Christ, he's way above any law humans can make.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. We may believe that but a legal memo was once given to the President

by either Gonzales or Yoo that said the President in his capacity as Commander in Chief in a time of war was in fact above the law. Scary but true.

Some other DUer posted the comment "Hubris is followed by Nemesis".
Great comment and beautifully sums up the entire situation about everything.

[KansDem]

4. Used to...

Not so sure now. Getting harder and harder to continue to believe what we learned as children...

[aspberger]

5. In the political game of chess

this is a queen taking down a pawn. Except for all the noise, this is a the beginning of the lame duck stage of the W presidency.

[Logan_430]

6. What law are we talking about? n/t

[The2ndWheel]

7. Laws and rules

Those were fun when we thought they existed. To some it's breaking a law, to others it's simply business.

[Debs]

8. NO MAN. Period

Let justice be done though the heavens fall

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. Depends if you write the laws and know the lawyers and judges.

Seems to be working rather well, eh?

[kodi]

10. from Robert Bolton’s play “A Man for all Seasons”

Note in the following passage that what is said by Thomas Moore on abiding by the Law and not casting it aside for mere convenience sake, and that William Roper's remarks resemble the attitude of George W. Bush, especially if the analogy of Bush’s fetish with Osama bin Laden and its repercussions on civil liberties is laid next to what is said by Roper about the Law in the pursuit of his own Devil.


ST. (SIR) THOMAS MORE (A Man for All Seasons):

http://www.publicdefender.com/FJCPDCthomasmoore.html

“The following is an excerpt of a dialogue among More, his daughter and her suitor, William Roper, as set forth in Robert Bolt's two-act play, A Man For All Seasons. In this play, Bolt had hoped in part to contrast the seriousness which More in the 16th Century attached to the swearing of an oath as compared with the insignificance attached to such an event in modern times - then 1962.”

More: There is no law against that.

Roper: There is! God's law!

More: Then God can arrest him.

Roper: Sophistication upon sophistication.

More: No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law. I know what's legal not what's right. And I'll stick to what's legal.

Roper: Then you set man's law above God's!

More: No, far below; but let me draw your attention to a fact - I'm not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain sailing, I can't navigate. I'm no voyager. But in the thickets of the law, oh, there I'm a forrester. I doubt if there's a man alive who could follow me there, thank God....

Alice: While you talk, he's gone!

More: And go he should, if he was the Devil himself, until he broke the law!

Roper: So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!

More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you - where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast - man's laws, not God's - and if you cut them down - and you're just the man to do it - d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.

Roper: I have long suspected this, this is the golden calf; the law's your god!

More: Oh, Roper, you're a fool, God's my god....But I find him rather too subtle....I don't know where He is or what He wants.

Roper: My God wants service, to the end and unremitting; nothing else!

More: Are you sure that's God? He sounds like Moloch. But indeed it may be God - And whoever hunts for me, Roper, God or Devil, will find me hiding in the thickets of the law! And I'll hide my daughter with me! Not hoist her up the mainmast of your seagoing principles! They put about too nimbly!”

[James T. Kirk]

12. Suppose the law was unjust. Then I suppose lots of men would be "above" it

[Pepperbelly]

13. in principle or reality?

Those are two very different things.