Justice & Law Quote by Elliot Richardson

Richardson’s line is a quiet rebuke to a legal culture that likes to flatter itself as purely truth-seeking. By putting “the individual” ahead of “the truth,” he’s not downgrading facts; he’s insisting that justice isn’t a lab procedure. It’s a coercive public act performed on a person with a name, a job, and a life that can be shattered by the state’s need to look decisive. The key word is “concern”: not “goal” or “outcome,” but an ethical posture. Justice begins with restraint.

The subtext lands hardest in Richardson’s own moment. As Nixon’s attorney general and then defense secretary, he became a Watergate emblem when he resigned during the “Saturday Night Massacre” rather than carry out an order to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox. In that context, “truth” is not a neutral ideal; it’s a political weapon that executives and prosecutors can wield while claiming righteousness. Richardson is drawing a boundary: the government’s duty is first to protect the citizen from the government, even when chasing a righteous narrative.

The second clause matters because it refuses cynicism. He still ranks truth as a “second concern,” not an optional one, but its priority is disciplined by due process, rights, and humility about institutional power. The line works because it reverses the usual moral hierarchy: it makes justice less about winning the story and more about limiting the damage done in the name of being right.