Matter of Daniels

Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote, dissenting in Sacher v. United States, 343 US. 1, 72 S.Ct. 451, 96 L.Ed. 717 (1952):

In administering the criminal law, judges wield the most awesome surgical instruments of society. A criminal trial, it has been well said, should have the atmosphere of the operating room. The presiding judge determines the atmo sphere. He is not an umpire who enforces the rules of a game, or merely a moderator between contestants. If he is adequate to his functions, the moral authority which he radiates will impose the indispensable standards of dignity and austerity upon all…