Science & Tech Quote by Irving R. Kaufman

Calling the judiciary a "machine" is Kaufman at his most judicially deadpan: a judge describing his own institution with the cold vocabulary of industry. The line lands because it refuses the usual civic romance about courts as temples of justice. Instead, they are hardware: elaborate, noisy, perpetually running, and ruinously costly. You can hear the weary insider speaking to lawyers, legislators, and the public at once, conceding that truth in a courtroom is not discovered; it is manufactured through procedure.

The specific intent is twofold. First, it’s a defense of why courts move slowly and cost so much: due process is not a luxury add-on but the price of legitimacy. Second, it’s a warning that the system’s complexity is itself a kind of moral hazard. The more expensive the machine, the more it favors those who can afford to keep it running on their behalf. Kaufman’s phrasing puts class and power quietly on trial without ever naming them.

Subtextually, the quote punctures the fantasy that legal outcomes map neatly onto "what happened". Trials don’t replay reality; they process admissible fragments, coached testimony, burdens of proof, and strategic silence. "What to do about it" acknowledges the second task courts perform: they don’t just verify facts, they ration consequences. Punishment, liability, and vindication are policy decisions wearing the costume of neutral arbitration.

Context matters: Kaufman came from the mid-century federal bench, an era of expanding federal power, headline prosecutions, and growing skepticism about institutions. His remark reads like institutional self-critique from someone who knows the machine is necessary, but also knows what it chews up: time, money, and the public’s faith that justice is something simpler than process.