Friday, August 23, 2002

There are two two-word phrases that make many conservatives reflexively giggle or fume these days: "Cornel West" and "Ninth Circuit". Rather than making me giggle or fume, those phrases both make me feel good about our nation. Anyway, I digress. The point is that there is an article by a Stanford Law professor debunking the cherished conservative myth that the Ninth Circuit is crazy liberal and that that's why the Supreme Court reverses a number of its decisions. The real deal, says the professor, is that the Ninth Circuit is doing what a lower court is supposed to do (i.e., follow the existing law) but the Supreme Court, when it reverses the Ninth Circuit, is changing the law. I will admit that I haven't gone back and checked the decisions to see if I can independently confirm this pattern, but it sounds about right to me.

posted by sam 7:02 AM 0 comments

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

email: first name@last name dot net