Balancing Innocence and Guilt: A Metaphorical Analysis of the US Supreme Court's Rulings on...

The scales of justice is one of the most enduring metaphors in law. The image of Justice as a blindfolded woman holding a sword in one hand and a scale in the other has existed for more than 2000 years, appearing across continents and cultures (Curtis & Resnik, 1987, p.1729). Cesare Ripa, a sixteenth century Italian iconographer, notes that the scale serves as 'a metaphor for justice, which sees that each man receives that which is due him, no more and no less' (cited in Curtis & Resnik, 1987, p. 1749). Like archetypal metaphors that associate light with good and darkness with evil, the scale as a metaphor for justice equates balance with fairness and imbalance with unfairness and mistreatment. Osborn and Ehninger (1962) note that archetypal metaphors 'grow out of situations that move men deeply and which, consequently, exert strong control over how they think and feel' (p. 229). In American jurisprudence, the appeal for balance resonates strongly with the American ideals that all people are created equal and are guaranteed equal treatment under the law.