Daily Inspiration Quote by Lance Ito

"If you take the cameras out of the courtroom, then you hide a certain measure of truth from the public"

Lance Ito, Judge

About this Quote

Ito’s line is a judge’s version of a dare: if you’re confident in the system, let people see it. Coming from the man who presided over the O.J. Simpson trial - arguably the most televised courtroom drama in modern America - the sentence carries the weight of lived chaos, not airy civics. It’s not a neutral plea for transparency; it’s a warning about what happens when the state asks for privacy while exercising power.

The phrasing does sly work. “A certain measure of truth” is deliberately modest, almost lawyerly. Ito isn’t claiming cameras deliver pure objectivity; he’s arguing they prevent a total monopoly on narrative. Truth, in this frame, is partial and contested, but still something the public has a right to access. “Hide” sharpens the moral edge: removing cameras isn’t merely procedural, it’s a choice with ethical consequences.

The subtext is also defensive. Cameras were blamed for turning trials into theater - for grandstanding attorneys, performative witnesses, jurors turned into minor celebrities. Ito’s sentence flips that critique: the greater danger isn’t spectacle, it’s secrecy. He’s betting that publicity disciplines institutions more than it corrupts them.

Context matters: televised justice rose alongside eroding trust in government and media fragmentation. Cameras became a proxy fight over legitimacy. Ito’s quote lands because it understands a modern reality: in a culture trained to suspect backroom decisions, visibility isn’t entertainment. It’s accountability, or at least the closest approximation we can broadcast.

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About the Author

Lance Ito (born August 2, 1950) is a Judge from USA.

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