Brush up on your legalese, because Keith Whittington is back on the Remnant to poke plenty of fun at Advisory Opinions. Over the course of an exceptionally nerdy hour, he and Jonah explore the pros and cons of court packing and judicial term limits, occasionally stopping to discuss what would happen if the world were taken over by giant, hyper-intelligent ants. Are Supreme Court justices all partisan hacks? Why did Joe Biden establish the Supreme Court reform commission? And is there any real difference between lawyers and vampires?
Show Notes:
-Keith’s scholar page on Princeton’s website
-Keith’s previous Remnant appearance
-The Supreme Court commission’s final report
-Inside the Supreme Court commission
A problem with prospective court packing - adding more justices in ten years - is that you guarantee a riotous presidential election in ten years.
Do you know why laboratories are replacing their lab rats with lawyers? Three reasons:
(1) The staff doesn't get so attached to them.
(2) Lawyers are more plentiful. And:
(3) There are some things a rat just cannot be made to do.
*****
Famous university president dies and the board of trustees needs to hire a new one. An engineer, a political pollster, and a lawyer all apply for the job.
At the engineer's interview, the board asks him: "How much is 1+1?"
The engineer gets out his slide rule [this is a VERY old joke], does some quick computations, and says: "2.00 precisely."
At the political pollster's interview the board asks her the same question. "It's two, plus or minus three," she replies confidently. "And that will be $10,000 for my fee."
The board finally interviews the lawyer and asks him, "How much is 1 + 1?"
The lawyer leaps from his chair, locks the door, flips off the lights, unplugs all of the phones and appliances, pulls down the blinds, and motions to the board members to join him at the far end of the conference table. He whispers: "How much do you WANT it to be?"