In some cases, it is bad to follow the law, and it is good to set aside the letter of the law and to follow the dictates of justice and the common good. To follow the letter of the law when it ought not to be followed is sinful. Human law cannot repeal any part of divine law or natural law. All law is directed to the common well-being. For this it draws its force and meaning, and to the extent that it falls short of this it does not oblige in conscience. — St. Thomas Aquinas

An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.  To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just.  And law that degrades human personality is unjust.  — Martin Luther King, Jr.

…my [kindergarten aged] son and I discussed the civil rights movement, and I reminded him that not all rules are good rules and that unjust rules must be broken. — Eula Biss

a course change —
let’s rearrange
the priorities
for all minorities
to get long-overdue justice
and with reciprocity,
freedom, too, for all of us,
from bias, hate,
guilt and shame;
oh, my, isn’t it great?
there is no longer anyone to blame.

*quotes from a Matthew Fox meditation and a NY Times article by Eula Biss reprinted at On Being