If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice. Learned Hand

In McKithen v. Brown, Judge Calabresi opens his decision as follows:"Eighty-four years ago, Judge Learned Hand observed that '[o]ur procedure has been always haunted by the ghost of the innocent man convicted,' but posited, optimistically, that '[i]t is an unreal dream.' United States v. Garrison, 291 F. 646, 649 (S.D.N.Y. 1923). Today, with the advance of forensic DNA technology, our desire to join Learned Hand's optimism has given way to the reality of wrongful convictions -- a reality which challenges us to reaffirm our commitment to the principle that the innocent should be freed."The case involves an attempt by a prisoner to a post-conviction constitutional right to access to DNA testing, which, he asserts, might exonerate him. The District Court dismissed the action, citing the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, but the Second Circuit reversed. The decision can be found here.

calculus of negligence, first appeared in United States v. Carroll Towing, 159 F.2d 169 (2d Cir. 1947).

And now in that spirit, that spirit of an America which has never been, and which may never be; nay, which never will be except as the conscience and courage of Americans create it; yet in the spirit of that America which lies hidden in some form in the aspirations of us all; in the spirit of that America for which our young men are at this moment fighting and dying; in that spirit of liberty and of America I ask you to rise and with me pledge our faith in the glorious destiny of our beloved country.”

Billings Learned Hand (January 27, 1872 – August 18¹, 1961) — usually called simply Learned Hand — was a famed American judge and an avid supporter of free speech, though he is most remembered for applying economic reasoning to American tort law. Hand is generally considered to be one of the most influential American judges never to have served on the Supreme Court of the United States.

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"The less developed the characters, the less they can be copyrighted; that is the penalty an author must bear for marking them too indistinctly." So wrote Judge Learned Hand in his landmark decision in Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp. (1930), ruling that the author of Abie's Irish Rose could not make the charge of plagiarism stick against the producers of The Cohens and the Kellys. A mere "idea" (the scare quotes are Judge Hand's) may be borrowed by anyone, along with stock figures, characters "so faintly indicated as to be no more than stage properties" and "low comedy of the most conventional sort."

"I must say that, as a litigant, I should dread a lawsuit beyond almost anything short of sickness and death."
-- Judge Learned Hand, from "The Deficiencies of Trials to Reach the Heart of the Matter", in 3 "Lectures On Legal Topics" 89, 105 (1926), quoted in Fred R. Shapiro, "The Oxford Dictionary Of American Legal Quotations" 304 (1993).

"Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it." must say that, as a litigant, I should dread a lawsuit beyond almost anything short of sickness and death." -- Judge Learned Hand, from "The Deficiencies of Trials to Reach the Heart of the Matter", in 3 "Lectures On Legal Topics" 89, 105 (1926), quoted in Fred R. Shapiro, "The Oxford Dictionary Of American Legal Quotations" 304 (1993).

Jama v. I.N.S.329 F.3d 630C.A.8 (Minn.),2003.May 27, 2003
But it was Learned Hand himself who noted that it would be “most irksome to be ruled by a bevy of Platonic Guardians,” even if he knew “how to choose them,” which, he said, he assuredly did not.

Learned Hand , The Bill of Rights, 73 (1958). Congress is free to fix the statute if it needs fixing, and Congress knows how to do so if it wishes.