Politics & Power Quote by Abbie Hoffman

A charge like this lands because it refuses the comforting myth that law is a neutral machine. Hoffman isn`t arguing that courts never reach fair outcomes; he`s saying the system`s default setting is practicality for the powerful. "Expedience" is an ugly word in civic life: it suggests shortcuts, damage control, and decisions made to keep things moving rather than to make things right. By pairing it against "justice", Hoffman sets up a moral contrast that makes the legal order sound less like a principled institution and more like a crisis-management apparatus.

The subtext is classic Hoffman: if the law bends toward what is convenient, then legality becomes a weapon, not a standard. "Contemporary American law" points to a living, adaptable tool - adaptable, in his view, to state interests, property, and public calm. That phrasing also dodges conspiracy-mongering; he doesn`t need to claim every judge is corrupt. He only needs you to notice patterns: harsh punishment for dissent, procedural games that exhaust defendants, selective enforcement that treats some communities as inherently suspect.

Context matters. Hoffman came out of the 1960s crucible of Vietnam, civil rights, COINTELPRO, and spectacle trials like the Chicago Seven, where the performance of order often eclipsed the pursuit of truth. He watched the state treat protest as a threat to be contained, then wrap that containment in due-process language. The line works because it names what many people sense in moments of unrest: the law`s first job is to stabilize the system. Justice, if it arrives, is often the byproduct, not the aim.