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The information on Groklaw is not intended to constitute legal advice. While Mark is a lawyer and he has asked other lawyers and law students to contribute articles, all of these articles are offered to help educate, not to provide specific legal advice. They are not your lawyers.

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"The entire US system was originally designed to protect the little guy" | 168 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Corrections
Authored by: alisonken1 on Friday, October 05 2012 @ 09:44 AM EDT
Quick summary in title: Kerrections -> Corrections

Then any extra info like where it's at or any commentary in
the comments box


---
- Ken -
import std_disclaimer.py
Registered Linux user^W^WJohn Doe #296561
Slackin' since 1993
http://www.slackware.com

[ Reply to This | # ]

News picks
Authored by: feldegast on Friday, October 05 2012 @ 10:00 AM EDT
Please make links clickable

---
IANAL
My posts are ©2004-2012 and released under the Creative Commons License
Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0
P.J. has permission for commercial use.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Off topic
Authored by: feldegast on Friday, October 05 2012 @ 10:01 AM EDT
Please make links clickable

---
IANAL
My posts are ©2004-2012 and released under the Creative Commons License
Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0
P.J. has permission for commercial use.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Comes transcribing
Authored by: feldegast on Friday, October 05 2012 @ 10:02 AM EDT
Thank you for your support

---
IANAL
My posts are ©2004-2012 and released under the Creative Commons License
Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0
P.J. has permission for commercial use.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Alternatives to judge voting?
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, October 05 2012 @ 10:46 AM EDT
Quoth PJ "Voting in judges, therefore, is probably the very
last way you want to put them into office, frankly, as
retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has been
trying to tell the country for a couple of years now."

OK, but what exactly is the alternative? Judges appointed
by politicians, who are themselves chosen by voters? The
Supreme Court is appointed, not voted, but we have a highly
politicized high court, and the balance swings suddenly
(whoever is in office when a justice dies or retires). You
also get the inefficiency of judges who know they're not
still up to it staying on to wait for an ideallogically
aligned president to be replaced.

Plus, voting allows bad judges to be removed, and there are
bad judges out there (witness the "screw you, Supreme
Court!" attitude of a disturbing percentage of the Federal
Circuit.

What I'd really like to see (in an ideal world) is a peer-
reviewed selection of judges based on fairness and knowledge
of the law. I'd also like to catch a leprechaun.

Don't get me wrong - I agree judge election is a step
towards majoritarianism. I just don't see a realistic
apolitical alternative that will realistically produce
materially better judges.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Oracle and Google File Appeals ~pj
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, October 05 2012 @ 11:00 AM EDT
I believe that very sad day already came. It is very evident
that true respect for laws and the court system has gone by
the wayside. The lesser people are constantly being thrown
under the chariot wheels of the wealthy and powerful for the
sake of money and property to be gained.

[ Reply to This | # ]

"I appeal everything"
Authored by: jpvlsmv on Friday, October 05 2012 @ 11:15 AM EDT
Can you really say "Everything that was decided against us was wrong, so we
appeal all of that"?

If you can, then what does it mean to fail to preserve an issue for appeal?
Wouldn't every lawyer just add that boilerplate into every appeal just in case?

It doesn't seem to help narrow down the issues that the appeals court would need
to decide, does it? At the very least, shouldn't the appellant be required to
list the specific decisions?

--Joe

[ Reply to This | # ]

The US Wanted To Be Different (NOT!)
Authored by: dobbo on Friday, October 05 2012 @ 11:55 AM EDT

If the US wanted to be different why did it base it's legal system so much on English law?

I remember at the start of Bill Clinton's trial that is lawyers quoted to articles of English Common Law in this opening remarks.

The influence of the Magna Carta on the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights is clear:

Article 21 from the Declaration of Rights in the Maryland Constitution of 1776 reads: "That no freeman ought to be taken, or imprisoned, or disseized of his freehold, liberties, or privileges, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any manner destroyed, or deprived of his life, liberty, or property, but by the judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land."

One of the key points of the Magna Carta was "The right to due process which led to Trial by Jury". The Magna Carta is the first document I know of where the absolute ruling monarch was brought under the law.

Let's not forget that the Magna Carta was signed by King John in 1215, while the Americas were not discovered until 1492. The USA did not appear with new laws and morals from nowhere. The ideas were being expressed in England and across Europe for long before the War of Independence. It is the advantage of a new country that one can cheery pick the best ideas from where ever they have sprung. France did much the same after its revolution, at least to my English eyes. Ideas that were well know within the Palace of Versailles.

[ Reply to This | # ]

"The entire US system was originally designed to protect the little guy"
Authored by: Yossarian on Friday, October 05 2012 @ 03:30 PM EDT
Intents are very nice, but results are more important.
For example, if the government wants to confiscate the little
guy's land, under Eminent Domain, so a rich guy will make a
better use of it, then the courts say, loud and clear, "YES!".
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London

The Founding Fathers may had different ideas when they wrote
the Fifth, but the Supreme Court is there to protect the rich
developer from the little property owner.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Oracle and Google File Appeals ~pj
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, October 06 2012 @ 08:27 PM EDT
Voting in judges, therefore, is probably the very last way you want to put them into office, frankly, as retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has been trying to tell the country for a couple of years now.
She is right you know. Why you never know when the great unwashed without the advantage of finely honed gnostic tortuous legal logic may have to relay upon common sense to sort an issue out or elect a good man or woman into office. Why those dunces never have could seen the eligibly of mathematics under the penumbra of patent law. And imagine how boring our lives would be if "is" just meant "is."

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Offtopic: site support
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, October 07 2012 @ 07:08 AM EDT
Any idea when new users can be created again?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Oracle and Google File Appeals ~pj
Authored by: yacc on Monday, October 08 2012 @ 11:47 PM EDT
Divided 4-4 rulings don't have the same impact as true majority decisions as
they don't set a nationwide precedent.

Meaning that is has been only already decided for Omega watches, probably not
even other watches.

[ Reply to This | # ]

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