Stare decisis is foundational to American jurisprudence. It is the legal system's promise that like things will be treated alike, and that outcomes will be predictable based on the law and nothing else. There is no basis, e.g. to revisit In re Humphrey's Executor, a carefully reasoned decision which examined what Congress did, why it was done that way, and what the limits of Executive power consisted of. The entire operation of the administrative state was based on Humphrey's Executor, and rejecting in now doesn't even rise to the level of bad faith. It is judicial nihilism.
Likewise Wong Kim Ark. Setting aside the plain language of the 14th Amendment (although plain language is a first principle in Constitutional and statutory construction) there is no reason that birthright citizenship needed to be revisited, but the policy beliefs of three and a half Supreme Court Justices brought us to the brink.
I have had my share of disappointing outcomes in my career as a litigator, but those were not the result of a judge making up a legal principle out of whole cloth. This Court is doing exactly that, and it sickens me
Of
course law is politics at the Supreme Court level. It can’t not be.
There will always be an extent when many of the cases the Court picks
are picked because a fistful of Justices have a policy direction in
mind. The expectation is supposed to be that there will be an opinion
explaining why the outcome is consistent with prior cases, or how it is
distinguished from them. The Justice writing is supposed to show their
work. This Court just hand waves that away, with a, “Nah, those guys was
wrong,” and a shrug.
169 at my poling place at 11:45
Sonny Rollins, famously associated with the Williamsburg Bridge, has crossed the Rainbow Bridge. I find that I've posted about him a fair bit.
Sometimes I like to think about super-powers. Someone who has magnetic powers is popular: Magneto, Cosmic Boy, Polaris. Mostly this seems to involve waving one's hands around to manipulate stuff, but it seems to me that this isn't really how this power would work. It seems more likely to me that these people would be covered in iron filings and assorted other magnetic junk. Kitchen appliances would constantly be shifted out of position when they walk by, computer drives would be ruined....
People are sometimes surprised that I have a turntable, although they probably shouldn’t be- I’m a perfect fit for that demographic. I think it’s a bit more peculiar that I still have a tape deck. It’s even a medium fancy one. I cannot remember the last time I used it, but today I popped an old mixtape in it.
Like digging in at a great record store the pleasures associated with making a great mixtape have largely been lost to us. Some of the fun was cerebral: what feelings, or range of feelings do I want the listener to experience? Some of it was technical: segues that are either seamless or shocking; no miscues. Some of it was just showing off the depths of your record collection. (I don’t think we called them ‘vinyl’ much, and unless it’s a single or a 78 a collection of recorded music is an album to me.) A great mixtape is an act of curation. I did a little bit of live DJ’ing in my misspent youth, and there are things that both have in common, but I think there are enough differences to matter.
For one thing, live DJ’ing is much more performative. Making a mixtape for a party is, arguably, more aspirational. You hope the party goes the way you’ve programmed and if it doesn’t you can’t fix it on the fly.
Damn, we had great taste. I’m pretty sure this was made by my brother
Greg - know I didn’t own some of the cuts and the lettering looks like it might be his. We bought Maxell Chrome C90s by the six pack and almost exclusively. Occasionally we’d try a different brand- TDK was reliable, and sometimes we’d try the more expensive metal tapes, but this Maxell ChromeI’m listening to sounds great right now
