Law & Order (TV Series)

The Ring (2002)

Fred Thompson: DA Arthur Branch

Quotes 

• A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn : The theory is that Bradley Hagen killed Kelly Sommers uptown on the night of September 10th, then awoke to find that the terrorists had given him the perfect out.

  Jack McCoy : Because she threatened to expose their affair?

  A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn : Well, she implied it in her e-mail.

  Arthur Branch : Arresting a Hagen in New York is like arresting a Kennedy in Cambridge. We'll need more than implication.

  Jack McCoy : Is that cigar smoke from the old boys' club I smell, Arthur?

  Arthur Branch : No, it's a healthy whiff of old-fashioned pragmatism.

  Jack McCoy : But the press will run with cronyism. It's no secret the Hagens supported your election.

  Arthur Branch : The press doesn't know that some nitwit in a black robe might toss the e-mail as a violation of Bradley Hagen's privacy.

  A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn : Don't you think...

  Arthur Branch : I think interleague play disrupted the moral fiber of this nation. I think Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided. And I think if you indict someone named Hagen on my watch, you damn well better convict them.

  A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn : So we turn the other cheek because of who he is?

  Arthur Branch : As a matter of fact, yes. Unless you come up with something more than a chunk of chocolate cake and an epistle from cyberspace.

• Arthur Branch : Let me ask you something, Serena. When I said what I did about Roe V. Wade being wrong, what did you think?

  A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn : No holds barred?

  Arthur Branch : Pull no punches.

  A.D.A. Serena Southerlyn : That you let your religious beliefs cloud your legal judgment.

  Arthur Branch : The reason I disagree with Roe V. Wade has nothing to do with going to church on Sunday, and it's a bad decision because it's based on a legal fiction, better known as the right to privacy. Now, you go ahead and show me where the framers mentioned the word 'privacy'. You can't because it's not in there.

  Jack McCoy : The Burger Court said that...

  Arthur Branch : Yeah, the penumbra of the 14th Amendment. Judicial hocus pocus, acting like politicians instead of justices.