# John F. Kennedy — "no man … is entitled to defy a court of law" > [!quote] "Americans are free, in short, to disagree with the law but not to disobey it. For in a government of laws and not of men, no man, however prominent or powerful, and no mob, however unruly or boisterous, is entitled to defy a court of law. If this country should ever reach the point where any man or group of men by force or threat of force could long defy the commands of our court and our Constitution, then no law would stand free from doubt, no judge would be sure of his writ, and no citizen would be safe from his neighbors." > — John F. Kennedy, Radio and Television Report to the Nation on the Situation at the University of Mississippi, September 30, 1962 ## Context James Meredith, a Black [[Air Force]] veteran, had won a federal court order admitting him to the all-white University of Mississippi. As he arrived, a riot erupted on campus and Governor [[Ross Barnett]] encouraged defiance. Kennedy addressed the nation as federal marshals and troops moved to enforce the order; two people were killed in the violence that night. ## Why this matters Kennedy fuses the two halves of this collection in one passage: he quotes [[John Adams]]'s "government of laws and not of men" and draws the bright line — citizens may *disagree* with the law but not *disobey* it, and "no man, however prominent or powerful" may defy a court. His warning is explicitly about what happens when defiance of court orders becomes normal: "no law would stand free from doubt, no judge would be sure of his writ." It is the cleanest articulation of why a president must obey, and enforce, judicial rulings. ## Verification - **Primary source:** [JFK Presidential Library, Report to the Nation on the Situation at the University of Mississippi, September 30, 1962](https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/university-of-mississippi-19620930); [Miller Center transcript](https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/september-30-1962-address-situation-university-mississippi). - **Status:** Verbatim from the official text. Undisputed. ## Related quotes - [[John Adams - a government of laws and not of men]] — the founding phrase Kennedy is invoking. - [[Dwight D. Eisenhower - mob rule cannot override the courts]] — the same crisis, the same principle, five years earlier. - Featured in [[Presidents on the Rule of Law]].