On Lawyers, the "Law", etc.

Along with all the other terrible things this decision presages for our collective future, it has reinforced my somewhat-dormant belief that being a lawyer – and certainly being a Supreme Court justice – does not require any level of genius.

I once dated a woman (a law student) who - despite being a dyed-in-the-wool liberal - tried to convince me of the peculiar genius of Antonin fucking Scalia. She praised his rhetorical and writing skills and likely some other stuff. (Though, interestingly I have no recollection of praise for his logical rigor.)

At the time, I rolled my eyes in part due to a snobbery resident in many STEM types towards anything that isn’t... well, STEM type stuff. My point at the time was that “the law” is basically whatever a bunch of people with power decides it is. There are no first principles as one might need to design an atomic bomb or build a house or any number of things requiring technical know-how that derives from the fundamental laws of physics and chemistry. In return, my girlfriend sort of rolled her eyes at me and over the years I unilaterally backed away from my rather sophomoric position. More or less. Mostly in the way that I've learned over the years that there can be very, very smart people in almost every profession even if the job itself doesn't really require much in the of intellectual horsepower.

And while for the most part I continue to believe the part about smart people in all lines of work, my view of the Supreme Court and "the law" has hardened (or perhaps more accurately, curdled) over the past several years. At this stage, my earlier late 20s opinion seems much more prescient - that "the law" is pretty much whatever a few random people in power decides it is. There isn't any real logic, no reliance on science or statistics, no true historic investigation. Just a bunch of half-assed, ahistorical justification of some shit these jokers have wanted to do for literally decades.

The citizenry needs to wake up and start treating these justices just like any other 2 bit congressman. They'll say anything to get their places and then do whatever they want. Confirmation hearings need to be something more than the kabuki theater they currently are and the candidates must be forced to answer fully or face summary rejection.

A guy can dream right?