Equal justice under law

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Equal justice under law

Equal justice under law is a phrase engraved on the front of the United States Supreme Court building

United States Supreme Court building

The Supreme Court building is the seat of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is situated in Washington, D.C. at 1 First Street NE, on the block immediately east of the United States Capitol....
in Washington D.C. This phrase was apparently first written in 1932 by the architectural firm that designed the building. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes

Charles Evans Hughes

Charles Evans Hughes Sr. was a lawyer and United States Republican Party politician from the State of New York. He served as Governor of New York , United States Secretary of State , Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Chief Justice of the United States ....
subsequently approved this inscription, as did the United States Supreme Court Building Commission which Hughes chaired. The architectural firm that authored the phrase was headed by Cass Gilbert

Cass Gilbert

Cass Gilbert was a pioneering American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers in works like the Woolworth Building, Gilbert was also responsible for numerous museums and libraries , state capitol buildings as well as public architectural icons like the United States Supreme Court building....
.

The words "Equal Justice Under Law" apparently paraphrase an earlier expression coined by Chief Justice Melville Fuller

Melville Fuller

Melville Weston Fuller was the Chief Justice of the United States between 1888 and 1910....
.

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Equal justice under law is a phrase engraved on the front of the United States Supreme Court building

United States Supreme Court building

Charles Evans Hughes

Cass Gilbert

Melville Fuller

Melville Weston Fuller was the Chief Justice of the United States between 1888 and 1910....
. In the case of Caldwell v. Texas in 1891, Fuller wrote about the Fourteenth Amendment

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-American Civil War Reconstruction Amendments that was first intended to secure the rights of former Slavery in the United States....
as follows:

By the Fourteenth Amendment the powers of the States in dealing with crime within their borders are not limited, but no State can deprive particular persons or classes of persons of equal and impartial justice under the law.

Neither this entire sentence, nor even the last seven words, would have fit on a pediment

Pediment

A pediment is a classical architecture element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns....
or architrave

Architrave

The architrave is a moulded or ornamental band framing a rectangular opening. It is the lintel or beam that rests on the capital s of the columns....
of the U.S. Supreme Court building, which explains why the architects would have wanted to shorten them. In the years since Fuller wrote these words, the Supreme Court has decided that the Fourteenth Amendment, and especially its Due Process Clause, do limit the powers of the states in dealing with crime.

The Funeral Oration of Pericles

The term "equal justice" dates back at least to the dawn of western civilization. In his funeral oration

Pericles' Funeral Oration

Pericles' Funeral Oration is a famous speech from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. The speech was delivered by Pericles, an eminent Athenian politician, at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War as a part of the annual public funeral for the war dead....
of 430 B.C., the Athenian

Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
leader Pericles

Pericles

Pericles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of History of Athens during the city's Age of Pericles?specifically, the time between the Greco-Persian Wars and Peloponnesian War wars....
discussed this concept. Thus, Chief Justice Fuller was by no means writing on a clean slate when he referred to "equal and impartial justice under the law" in Caldwell v. Texas. There are several different English translations of the relevant passage in Pericles' funeral oration, and three of those English translations will now be quoted. Here is Pericles discussing "equal justice" according to the English translation by Richard Crawley in 1874:

Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition.

Here is Pericles discussing "equal justice" according to the English translation by Benjamin Jowett

Benjamin Jowett

Benjamin Jowett was an England scholar, classicist and theology, and Master of Balliol College, Oxford....
in 1881:

Our form of government does not enter into rivalry with the institutions of others. We do not copy our neighbours, but are an example to them. It is true that we are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few. But while the law secures equal justice to all alike in their private disputes, the claim of excellence is also recognised; and when a citizen is in any way distinguished, he is preferred to the public service, not as a matter of privilege, but as the reward of merit. Neither is poverty a bar, but a man may benefit his country whatever be the obscurity of his condition.

And here is Pericles discussing "equal justice" according to the English translation by Rex Warner

Rex Warner

Rex Warner was an England classics, writer and translation. He is now probably best remembered for The Aerodrome , an allegory novel whose young hero is faced with the disintegration of his certainties about his loved ones and with a choice between the earthy, animalistic life of his home village and the pure, efficient, emotionally det...
in 1954:

Our form of government does not enter into rivalry with the institutions of others. Our government does not copy our neighbors', but is an example to them. It is true that we are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few. But while there exists equal justice to all and alike in their private disputes, the claim of excellence is also recognized; and when a citizen is in any way distinguished, he is preferred to the public service, not as a matter of privilege, but as the reward of merit. Neither is poverty an obstacle, but a man may benefit his country whatever the obscurity of his condition.

The funeral oration by Pericles was published in Thucydides

Thucydides

Thucydides was a Greeks history and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century B.C. war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 B.C....
’ History of the Peloponnesian War
History of the Peloponnesian War

The History of the Peloponnesian War is an account of the Peloponnesian War in Ancient Greece, fought between the Peloponnesian League and the Delian League ....
, of which there are several other English translations

History of the Peloponnesian War

The History of the Peloponnesian War is an account of the Peloponnesian War in Ancient Greece, fought between the Peloponnesian League and the Delian League ....
.