ACADEMIC STUDY ON MENTAL DECREPITUDE ON SUPREME COURT
MARC ABRAHAMS, GUARDIAN, UK - Legal research, by tradition dreary and
droning, is epitomized by the study Mental Decrepitude on the US Supreme
Court. It is 93 pages of dreary, depressing documentation.
David Garrow did the research, wrote the pages, and published them in
the University of Chicago Law Review [seven years ago]. . . Garrow
sought out, studied, and savored the eyebrow-raising late-in-life
behavior of America's highest judges. . .
A contemporary account of William Cushing, one of the court's original
judges, says that his "final years on the bench were difficult ones . .
. With his mental facilities waning to the point of deranging his mind,
but dependent upon his salary for income, he remained in service through
the intercession of friends, who prevailed upon him to continue."
Judge Henry Baldwin, appointed in 1830 at the
tender-for-a-supreme-court-justice age of 50, was colorful from the
start. Baldwin "was hospitalized for what was called 'incurable lunacy'
and missed the entire 1833 term of court. . .
Justice Henry Billings Brown, who "willingly chose" to retire in 1906,
at the age of 70, later wrote: "Of the four men on our court who lost
their minds, all of them lost them while they were still upon the
bench."
So did many others. Garrow's study, lengthy as it is, does not mention
them all. And it does not discuss current supreme court justices. . .
http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,2021677,00.html
CHICAGO LAW REVIEW
http://lawreview.uchicago.edu/issues/archive/v67/fall/garrow.html
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GREAT MOMENTS IN LEGAL PRECEDENTS
TONY MAURO, LEGAL TIMES - Even at the Supreme Court, a picture — or in
this case, a video — can be worth a thousand words. Or more. In the case
of Scott v. Harris, . . . justices debated whether Coweta County, Ga.,
sheriff's deputy Timothy Scott used reasonable force in 2001 when he
rammed his vehicle into a Cadillac he was pursuing during a high-speed
chase. The driver, Victor Harris, who at the time was 19, had been
targeted for speeding. U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit denied
him. . .
What justices kept coming back to was the video of the six-minute chase,
taken by dashboard cameras in the police cars involved. The grainy
nighttime video, part of the public record in the case, shows the car
reaching 90 miles per hour as it sped by other motorists under pursuit
by the police. The video was not shown in the courtroom, but it was
evident that most if not all the justices had seen it — and been
affected by it. . .
Justice Antonin Scalia called it "the scariest chase I ever saw since
'The French Connection'" as he grilled the lawyer for Harris, Craig
Jones of Edmond & Jones in Atlanta. "It's frightening."
And Justice Stephen Breyer, thinking out loud, told Jones he had been
"shifting back and forth" as he read the briefs in the case, "and then I
looked at the tape."
Quoting from the noted legal scholar Chico Marx — of Marx Brothers fame
— Breyer later said, again referring to the tape, "Who are you going to
believe, me or your own eyes?" . . .
Justice Samuel Alito Jr. also said watching the tape led him to think
that Harris created "tremendous" risk to other drivers by speeding, and
Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreed that the tape showed the situation was
"fraught with danger," implying that the officer was acting reasonably
in ending the chase however he could.
http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/PubArticleDC.jsp?id=1172497085767
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MARC ABRAHAMS, GUARDIAN, UK - Legal research, by tradition dreary and
droning, is epitomized by the study Mental Decrepitude on the US Supreme
Court. It is 93 pages of dreary, depressing documentation.
David Garrow did the research, wrote the pages, and published them in
the University of Chicago Law Review [seven years ago]. . . Garrow
sought out, studied, and savored the eyebrow-raising late-in-life
behavior of America's highest judges. . .
A contemporary account of William Cushing, one of the court's original
judges, says that his "final years on the bench were difficult ones . .
. With his mental facilities waning to the point of deranging his mind,
but dependent upon his salary for income, he remained in service through
the intercession of friends, who prevailed upon him to continue."
Judge Henry Baldwin, appointed in 1830 at the
tender-for-a-supreme-court-justice age of 50, was colorful from the
start. Baldwin "was hospitalized for what was called 'incurable lunacy'
and missed the entire 1833 term of court. . .
Justice Henry Billings Brown, who "willingly chose" to retire in 1906,
at the age of 70, later wrote: "Of the four men on our court who lost
their minds, all of them lost them while they were still upon the
bench."
So did many others. Garrow's study, lengthy as it is, does not mention
them all. And it does not discuss current supreme court justices. . .
http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,2021677,00.html
CHICAGO LAW REVIEW
http://lawreview.uchicago.edu/issues/archive/v67/fall/garrow.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GREAT MOMENTS IN LEGAL PRECEDENTS
TONY MAURO, LEGAL TIMES - Even at the Supreme Court, a picture — or in
this case, a video — can be worth a thousand words. Or more. In the case
of Scott v. Harris, . . . justices debated whether Coweta County, Ga.,
sheriff's deputy Timothy Scott used reasonable force in 2001 when he
rammed his vehicle into a Cadillac he was pursuing during a high-speed
chase. The driver, Victor Harris, who at the time was 19, had been
targeted for speeding. U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit denied
him. . .
What justices kept coming back to was the video of the six-minute chase,
taken by dashboard cameras in the police cars involved. The grainy
nighttime video, part of the public record in the case, shows the car
reaching 90 miles per hour as it sped by other motorists under pursuit
by the police. The video was not shown in the courtroom, but it was
evident that most if not all the justices had seen it — and been
affected by it. . .
Justice Antonin Scalia called it "the scariest chase I ever saw since
'The French Connection'" as he grilled the lawyer for Harris, Craig
Jones of Edmond & Jones in Atlanta. "It's frightening."
And Justice Stephen Breyer, thinking out loud, told Jones he had been
"shifting back and forth" as he read the briefs in the case, "and then I
looked at the tape."
Quoting from the noted legal scholar Chico Marx — of Marx Brothers fame
— Breyer later said, again referring to the tape, "Who are you going to
believe, me or your own eyes?" . . .
Justice Samuel Alito Jr. also said watching the tape led him to think
that Harris created "tremendous" risk to other drivers by speeding, and
Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreed that the tape showed the situation was
"fraught with danger," implying that the officer was acting reasonably
in ending the chase however he could.
http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/PubArticleDC.jsp?id=1172497085767
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