Mencken on laughter in court

“The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail. If it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.” — H.L. Mencken (via Melissa Gomez). The excellent Yale Book of Quotations (Fred Shapiro & Joseph Epstein) says the quote is found in Mencken’s A Little Book in C Major, ch. 4 (1916).

Comments are closed.