"He's peddling defective children with little regard for their welfare or that of the adoptive parents."
"My old man knew a thing or two about that. Never occurred to him to sue the city."
Defense Attorney: "The mayor's called him a hero, for god's sake!"
Jack: "The mayor should have talked to me first."
"I don't want him as a witness. I want him as a defendant."
Abbie: "By the time the Feds get done with Diedtrich, they'll be naming bird sanctuaries after him."
Jack: "I'm not done with him."
Jack: "I got you dinner. I didn't know what you like, so I got you salad, low-cal dressing--"
Abbie: "Low-cal?"
Jack: "Excuse me?"
Abbie: "I burn it, not store it. What did you get?"
Jack: "Ribs."
Adam: "It's a preposterous decision. It hog-ties every federal prosecutor in the country and thanks to you, we're a party to it!"
Jack:: "The decision will be reversed on appeal six months from now. By then, Diedtrich and the other two will be on death row."
Abbie: "My Longhorns pennant will look good up there."
Jack: "Bite your tongue."
(After Abbie raised concerns over a police line-up): "Major felonies, Abbie. Welcome to the big leagues."
Abbie: "Jury seemed to be happy the trial was over."
Jack: "That makes 13 of us."
Skoda:"...feels like he settled when he married his wife..."
Jack: "I know a lot of guys who feel that way."
"If we don't stop him now, what do we say to the families of those future women next week, next month, next year? Want the risk their lives for the sake of ending Bergstrom's?"
"Bergstrom knew we'd find these bodies sooner or later. He preempted us. He played us."
Jack: "The New York County District Attorney's Office can't, no, won't knowingly convict a man of committing a crime. What were you thinking?!?!"
Abbie: "Well, I'm just taking a page from the Jack McCoy playbook. Nobody gets to bend the rules but you?"
Jack: "I've bent the rules to convict the right person of the right crime. This isn't bending, this is turning the law against itself."
"I just recognize the possibility that I might lose!"
Arlene: "What kind of person do you think I am?"
Jack: "A criminally negligent one."
"Have sex with me or I can get to your daughter. It dials up their justification defense to a nine or ten."
"You make me look like an old softie."
"If we give you manslaughter, Pacheco's lawyer can argue that he's a good Samaritan."
Abbie: "She was leeching favors off him."
Jack: "Extra socks?"
Jack: "Seems like everything was crazy, wasn't it?"
Harker: "How do you mean?"
Jack: "You loaned $50,000 to a madwoman. You went to your book group even though you hated it. Doris stole your gun, but you never noticed. She killed your family for no reason. Then she came to kill you for no reason, but she forgot the gun. Scratches appeared on your body by magic. Doris DID call you at the restaurant, but she never spoke. Is that the best story you can come up with?"
Harker: "I helped my husband in a lot of ways."
Jack: "The chairman of a multi-million dollar software company. How exactly does a drug-whacked daughter of a souvenir stand owner help him?"
"Do you consider yourself intelligent?"
Adam: "The death penalty may be statutory, it's not mandatory."
Jack: "In some cases, it is, Adam. Killing four people, killing a child ... Stephanie Harker doesn't push my pity button."
"The truth doesn't always set you free."
"The kid is outta luck."
"He was pulling the trigger until the gun fired."
Willis: "I teach them survival skills."
Jack: "Like slamming someone's head against a curb?"
Jack: "You teach young people to hate?"
Willis: "I teach them to eliminate hate between the races."
Jack: "By eliminating the other races?"
Willis: "I have a constitutional right to say that."
Jack: "And I have a constitutional obligation to make you bear the consequences, Mr. Willis."
"The first amendment protects words that persuade. It doesn't protect words that incite."
"I hope you can pull this one out of the crapper."
Jack: "Get a warrant for the tapes... and Tom Willis."
Abbie: "On what charge?"
Jack (after thinking for a moment): "Det. LaMotte said... he served alcohol to minors."
"Willis is the fountainhead of their brilliant behavior."
"If I thought we could stop hate with one prosecution, I'd be a fool."
"It wouldn't be the first time a revolution was financed by drug proceeds."
"Were you neutralizing a revolution or nurturing one?"
"Covering up a cover-up."
"First their bounty hunters treat our city like a shooting gallery. Now they want to take home the kewpie doll?"
"A society that tolerates to turns a blind eye to this kind of behavior is one step from barbarity."
"Mr. Dell, have you no shame? Have you no shame?"
William Dell: "Just where are you going, Mr. McCoy?"
Jack: "Back to New York. I have work to do."
Jack: "Chesley Purcell got one break."
Danvers: "How's that?"
Jack: "She won't have to stay in the same room as William Dell."
Adam: "Son of Sam again."
Jack: "No, Berkowicz was a psychopathic loser who received orders to kill from a Labrador retriever. Rosa's voices tell her to save the world."
"If your religious faith is based on miracles, why not anti-miracles?"
"Holy wars. There's an oxymoron if ever there was one."
"She may hear God, but she may not play God!"
"Maybe they thought that lying under oath was the fashionable thing to do."
"His bad luck was that one of us pierced attorney-client privilege."
"That's no runny nose."
"He beat you. He beat your children. But you say you didn't kill him, but if you did, it was in self defense. Is that what you're telling us?"
"I feel like we're in moot court."
"We thought we handled the media but the media handled us."
"She's been using you as a doormat for the last 20 years."
"A bikini shot. Was that a joke too?"
"Your husband can't tell you what to say right now."
Abbie: "Blindfolded, I could convince a jury that Nick Taska killed Professor Hollis."
Jack: "I'd rather have evidence."
"How did you like being arraigned, Mr. Fallon? It gets much worse from there."
Mrs. Taska: "You've heard what she had to say."
Jack: "All I've heard was a story that doesn't track."
"The statute is clear, and Mr. Fallon clearly violated it."
Taska's wife: "Those girls were very intent on getting things right!"
Jack: "I'll bet they were. Did the knot have to be perfectly centered, the loops exactly the same size?"
Abbie: "Their dad's about to find out what it's like to have your every move controlled."
Jack: "Kind of justice, I guess."
Adam: "I just got off with the United States Attorney. She called you an obstructionist."
Jack: "Under the circumstances, I'll consider it a compliment."
(Looking at Russo's friends)"Russo's ambassadors of goodwill."
Wilder: "I can't go to jail."
Jack: "Then convince us you shouldn't."
Gervitz: "No hard feelings, Jack."
Jack: "But now it's payback time."
"You're getting the hang of this, Abbie."
(to owners of 'Guys and Dolls')"You've made your choices; now there's only one left."
Abbie: "Bob Gervitz wants to talk about Russo."
Jack: "Now? Tell him we'll come by after lunch."
(to Gervitz) "You don't have the stomach to call Russo's bluff!"
Jack: "You sat there while I made a deal with them. They held up their end and plead guilty."
Gervitz: "And they deserve to go to jail."
Jack: "You promised them witness protection. Are you reneging on that too?"
Gervitz: "I don't consider them witnesses anymore. That no longer applies."
Jack: "You lied to their faces!"
Gervitz: "That's not the way I see it."
Jack: "You made me a party to it."
Gervitz: "I'm sure you'll get over it. I have my priorities, you have yours."
Jack: "The front page of the newspaper?"
Gervitz: "You give me way too much credit."
Jack: "You planned this, back when you gave us first crack at Russo. You played me."
Gervitz: "If that's the way you want to look at it. And it's out of your jurisdiction."
Jack: (helpless look.)
"Tell Mr. Margolis he can stuff his motion to dismiss."
(After finding out the Russian Mob hired Colombian hit men to kill a witness)
Abbie: "That could mean only one thing."
Anita: "The Russians are in bed with the Colombians."
Jack: "It's the worst possible scenario."
"The Russians are setting themselves up as money launderers of the world."
"Yes, if we're going to turn every precinct into a fortified garrison."
"They're using our banks, our federal reserve. They've turned their country into a thief's paradise, now they're doing it to ours. By the time we get indictments, it'll be game over."
Adam: "I see. You're planning to violate three, no, FIVE amendments to the Constitution."
Jack: "It's time someone talked to Mr. Volsky in a language he understands."
Adam: "And what language is that?"
Jack: Adam, unless you ORDER me not to do it..."
"He's the first domino. I have to knock him down."
"Are you really that stupid, Mr. Radford, or do you think we are?"
"Following the rules does not put you above the law. Just ask the Swiss bankers who collected the unappropriated accounts of Holocaust victims. Following the rules doesn't not explain why someone who runs a bank could be so incompetent...so gullible. There can be only one explanation. Mr. Radford turned a blind eye to what was obviously a criminal enterprise. The mob didn't have to cut off his uncle's hands to get him to do it; all they had to do was wave a fat commission in front of him. Some might think that money laundering is just some white-collar crime far removed from our everyday concerns. Let me remind you what money laundering is really about. Mr. Radford made his commission on the backs of these people. This country has always been a beacon to the world of liberty and justice -- that's why we keep our borders open. But we're also a beacon for another kind of people -- criminals and con men. We rely on the law to protect us from them. Sometimes...that's not enough. Do we need more law, less freedom? Do we cross out parts of the Constitution? I've learned that's not the answer. The answer is...that each one of us is responsible for everyone else. Not one of us can afford to turn a blind eye. By respecting the laws we do have, by living up to the true meaning of the word citizen, we preserve our common good. Through willful ignorance, Mr. Radford allowed a criminal enterprise to flourish...innocent people to be killed. He allowed a cancer to grow. This is where it has to stop. Here in this courtroom...with you."
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