Hugo Black – Constitutional Interpretation as a Product of the Times

February 12, 2010

“[Black] would not admit that the child-labor decision [invalidating child-labor restrictions] was final. Instead, he said: ‘The Constitution is final,’ for six new members had come into the Court since 1918, and ‘no doctrine of stare decisis applies to opinions on constitutional interpretation.’ He expressed his basic conviction that constitutional interpretation was a product of the [...]

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Drowning Out Individual Speech – The appalling Citizens United decision – Ronald Dworkin

February 4, 2010

[F]ive right wing Supreme Court judges [in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission] have now guaranteed that big corporations can spend unlimited funds on political advertising in any political election. In an opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas, the [...]

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Mark Twain – License of the Press

January 30, 2010

It seems to me that just in the ratio that our newspapers increase, our morals decay. The more newspapers the worse morals. … [T]he public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to [...]

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Anatomy of a Murder – “The Lecture”

January 13, 2010

The Lecture is an ancient device that lawyers use to coach their clients so that the client won’t quite know he has been coached and his lawyer can still preserve the face-saving illusion that he hasn’t done any coaching. For coaching clients, like robbing them, is not only frowned upon, it is downright unethical and [...]

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Henry Steele Commager – Who is Loyal to America?

January 8, 2010

It is easier to say what loyalty is not than what it is. It is not conformity. It is not passive acquiescence to the status quo. It is not preference for everything American over everything foreign. It is not an ostrich-like ignorance of the other countries and other institutions. It is not the indulgence in [...]

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Thornton Wilder – Something Eternal

December 28, 2009

We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars … everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that [...]

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Glanville Williams, Obiter Dictum

December 23, 2009

In contrast with the ratio decidendi is the obiter dictum. The latter is a mere saying by the way, a chance remark, which is not binding upon future courts, though it may be respected according to the reputation of the judge, the eminence of the court, and the circumstances in which it came to be [...]

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Learn Something – T.H. White

December 16, 2009

“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see [...]

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Samuel Johnson – Lawyers and Dissimulation

November 30, 2009

I asked him whether, as a moralist, he did not think that the practice of the law, in some degree, hurt the nice feeling of honesty. Johnson: ‘Why no, Sir, if you act properly. You are not to deceive your clients with false representations of your opinion; you are not to tell lies to a [...]

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Clarence Darrow – You Are All Prejudiced

November 18, 2009

“You need not tell me you are not prejudiced. I know better. We are not very much but a bundle of prejudices anyhow. We are prejudiced against other people’s color. Prejudiced against other men’s religions; prejudiced against other people’s politics. Prejudiced against people’s looks. Prejudiced about the way they dress. We are full of prejudices. [...]

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