It is the second great promise of the Constitution's Preamble, to establish justice, and the hardest to define. Justice is what a society looks like when everyone gets what is fair, and the fight over what fair means never ends.
Justice is the principle of fairness, of giving each person their due and treating like cases alike. It is one of the oldest concepts in political philosophy and one of the six goals named in the Preamble of the Constitution: to establish justice.
It comes in distinct kinds. Procedural justice is about fair processes, the rules of a fair trial, due process, equal treatment under law. Substantive justice is about fair outcomes, whether the results themselves are just. The two do not always agree.
It is closely tied to law, but not the same. A law can be unjust, as slavery was legal, and justice can demand changing the law. The phrase no justice, no peace and the long history of reform movements rest on the idea that legal and just are not identical.
The image is ancient: Lady Justice, blindfolded, holding scales and a sword. The blindfold means impartiality, judging without regard to wealth or status. The scales weigh the competing claims. The sword means that justice, to be real, must have the power to enforce its judgments.
