Apparently the facade of the U.S. Supreme Court has begun to crumble - literally. First Harriet Miers, and now this. The legal realists are undoubtedly dancing in the aisles, but it's a sad day for the rest of us.
Sorry, I didn't remember to put in a link to the story before. According to the Associated Press, "[a] basketball-sized piece of marble molding fell from the facade over the entrance to the Supreme Court Monday, landing on the steps near visitors waiting to enter the building." Most of the news items I've seen refer to this event as a "cracking" or "crumbling" facade. As far as I know, the underlying structure is intact.
But legal realism (as you may already know) purports to see through all the facades, justifications, aspirations and ideals of our legal system to the "true" underlying power plays and sordid influences involved. For instance, legal realists would typically assume that a judge (even a well-meaning one) does not "really" decide cases on the merits, but is instead influenced by factors such as the relative attractiveness of the parties, the judge's political views, the state of the judge's digestive system, inherent biases of the system and prejudices of the judge, etc., etc.
2 comments:
I'm not sure what you're talking about. Is the building falling apart or something?
Thanks for stopping by, Nominal.
Sorry, I didn't remember to put in a link to the story before. According to the Associated Press, "[a] basketball-sized piece of marble molding fell from the facade over the entrance to the Supreme Court Monday, landing on the steps near visitors waiting to enter the building." Most of the news items I've seen refer to this event as a "cracking" or "crumbling" facade.
As far as I know, the underlying structure is intact.
But legal realism (as you may already know) purports to see through all the facades, justifications, aspirations and ideals of our legal system to the "true" underlying power plays and sordid influences involved. For instance, legal realists would typically assume that a judge (even a well-meaning one) does not "really" decide cases on the merits, but is instead influenced by factors such as the relative attractiveness of the parties, the judge's political views, the state of the judge's digestive system, inherent biases of the system and prejudices of the judge, etc., etc.
Post a Comment