U.S. Justice
In 1971, Gerald Mayo brought a civil rights action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against Satan and his servants, who allegedly placed deliberate obstacles in Mayo's path. In its written opinion, the Court did not deny Satan's existence, but asserted that it was unlikely that Satan was ever present in the Western District of Pennsylvania, stating, "We question whether plaintiff may obtain personal jurisdiction over the defendant in this judicial district."
In a jocular reference to The Devil and Daniel Webster, the court implied that Satan might live in New Hampshire, stating, "While the official reports disclose no case where this defendant has appeared as defendant there is an unofficial account of a trial in New Hampshire where this defendant filed an action of mortgage foreclosure as plaintiff." This appears to be the only published legal case in the U.S. concerning Satan, and the present U.S. official position seems to be that Satan may exist and, if so, might be found in New Hampshire.
Read more about this topic: Lucifer In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the word justice:
“‘Alas!’ quoth he, ‘but newly born in fiery heats I fry,
Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I.
My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns;
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;
The fuel justice layeth on, and mercy blows the coals;
The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defiled souls;”
—Robert Southwell (1561?–1595)
“Hell is a city much like London—
A populous and a smoky city;
There are all sorts of people undone,
And there is little or no fun done;
Small justice shown, and still less pity.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)