Bench - Law and Politics

Law and Politics

  • Bench (metonymy), certain people in a given context, associated with a particular seating area, especially in politics and law
  • Bench (law), the location where a judge sits while in court, often a raised desk in a courtroom; also refers to the judiciary as a whole (to differentiate from the bar (law) – the lawyers or barristers); and may also mean a group of judges hearing a case and judging on a case.
  • As a specific application of the former, the panel or body of justices of the peace in a specific county under the traditional English system of magistracy.

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Famous quotes containing the words law and/or politics:

    “Faith, I have been a truant in the law,
    And never yet could frame my will to it,
    And therefore frame the law unto my will.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “From the beginning, the placement of [Clarence] Thomas on the high court was seen as a political end justifying almost any means. The full story of his confirmation raises questions not only about who lied and why, but, more important, about what happens when politics becomes total war and the truth—and those who tell it—are merely unfortunate sacrifices on the way to winning.”
    —Jane Mayer, U.S. journalist, and Jill Abramson b. 1954, U.S. journalist. Strange Justice, p. 8, Houghton Mifflin (1994)