"Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess"
About this Quote
Frankfurter’s line is a jab at a particular kind of legal vanity: the temptation to treat a lawsuit as an arena for cleverness rather than a tool for getting something done. “Game of chess” isn’t just an image of strategy; it’s a thumbnail sketch of the lawyer-as-tactician, sacrificing pawns (time, money, even clients) for the elegance of the position. By contrast, “practical ends” drags the whole enterprise back to earth: courts exist to resolve disputes, allocate harms, and restore order, not to reward brilliant maneuvers.
The specific intent reads as a judicial warning to advocates and, indirectly, to lower courts: don’t be seduced by procedural brinkmanship. Frankfurter, a Supreme Court Justice associated with restraint and respect for institutional limits, lived in an era when American law was becoming more professionalized, more procedural, and more enamored with its own internal logic. His jurisprudence often emphasized process and the proper role of courts; here he’s insisting that process serve outcomes, not eclipse them.
The subtext is also a rebuke to spectatorship. Chess is made for onlookers who admire pattern and foresight; litigation, in Frankfurter’s telling, is meant for the people caught inside it. The line quietly sides with the public’s suspicion that the legal system can become an expensive parlor sport. It’s a reminder that “winning” on a technicality can be morally thin, and that the legitimacy of courts depends less on virtuoso play than on results that feel tethered to real life.
The specific intent reads as a judicial warning to advocates and, indirectly, to lower courts: don’t be seduced by procedural brinkmanship. Frankfurter, a Supreme Court Justice associated with restraint and respect for institutional limits, lived in an era when American law was becoming more professionalized, more procedural, and more enamored with its own internal logic. His jurisprudence often emphasized process and the proper role of courts; here he’s insisting that process serve outcomes, not eclipse them.
The subtext is also a rebuke to spectatorship. Chess is made for onlookers who admire pattern and foresight; litigation, in Frankfurter’s telling, is meant for the people caught inside it. The line quietly sides with the public’s suspicion that the legal system can become an expensive parlor sport. It’s a reminder that “winning” on a technicality can be morally thin, and that the legitimacy of courts depends less on virtuoso play than on results that feel tethered to real life.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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