"Laws should be like clothes. They should be made to fit the people they serve"
About this Quote
Darrow’s line is courtroom pragmatism dressed as a slap at sanctimony. In one clean metaphor, he drains law of its priestly aura and recasts it as something stitched, worn, and altered - a human tool, not a divine commandment. Clothes exist for bodies; bodies don’t exist to justify clothes. The subtext is a warning against legal formalism: when judges and legislators treat rules as sacred objects, the people become the ones contorting, sweating, and tearing at the seams.
The intent is strategic. Darrow spent his career defending labor organizers, radicals, and the socially unwanted - clients most vulnerable to “neutral” laws written by and for the powerful. Saying laws should fit the people is also saying: watch who gets measured, who gets sized, and who is forced into a standard cut. “Fit” sounds benign, but it’s a political demand for responsiveness, not merely compassion.
Context matters because Darrow operated in an America industrializing at speed, with courts often using contract and property doctrine as a velvet glove for coercion. His metaphor suggests law should be tailored to lived conditions: poverty, unequal bargaining power, shifting norms. It’s also quietly anti-authoritarian. Clothes can be remade, outgrown, patched. So can statutes. If a law pinches, it’s not the citizen’s moral failure; it’s bad tailoring - and the tailor can be fired.
It works because it smuggles radical flexibility into an everyday image, making reform feel like common sense rather than revolution.
The intent is strategic. Darrow spent his career defending labor organizers, radicals, and the socially unwanted - clients most vulnerable to “neutral” laws written by and for the powerful. Saying laws should fit the people is also saying: watch who gets measured, who gets sized, and who is forced into a standard cut. “Fit” sounds benign, but it’s a political demand for responsiveness, not merely compassion.
Context matters because Darrow operated in an America industrializing at speed, with courts often using contract and property doctrine as a velvet glove for coercion. His metaphor suggests law should be tailored to lived conditions: poverty, unequal bargaining power, shifting norms. It’s also quietly anti-authoritarian. Clothes can be remade, outgrown, patched. So can statutes. If a law pinches, it’s not the citizen’s moral failure; it’s bad tailoring - and the tailor can be fired.
It works because it smuggles radical flexibility into an everyday image, making reform feel like common sense rather than revolution.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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