Justice & Law Quote by Joe Biden

Biden’s line reads like a defense brief disguised as reassurance: calm the civil-liberties crowd, validate the security-minded, and make the process sound inevitable. The opening move, “You get a lawyer,” is doing heavy political lifting. It’s a prophylactic against the post-9/11 suspicion that “tribunal” means lawless. By leading with “number one,” he signals a checklist mentality - not moral hand-wringing, but procedural competence. That’s the pitch: trust the system because the system has steps.

The real subtext sits in the contrast he sets up and then tries to collapse: military tribunal versus federal court. He acknowledges the fork in the road while implying the destination is basically the same - legitimacy. Yet the audience knows the distinction matters enormously: rules of evidence, public scrutiny, precedent. Biden’s insistence that counsel is guaranteed is a way of smoothing over the harsher optics of exceptional courts without conceding they’re exceptional.

Then comes the institutional handoff. “The attorney general decided…” shifts agency away from politics and onto a technocratic authority, like this was a jurisdictional problem, not a national argument about terrorism, symbolism, and risk. “Biggest… greatest venue… best jurisdiction” is telling: it frames justice as logistics and venue-shopping as prudence. New York isn’t just a court; it’s the stage where the story of 9/11 is culturally anchored. Calling it “the right decision” isn’t merely legal judgment - it’s an attempt to claim the moral high ground while keeping the conversation safely inside the boundaries of procedure.