The knotty problems of legal and constitutional precedence aired on the site
today are way above my pay grade, so I’m not going to address them directly.
There is a thing I’d like to say, though.
A couple of times, visiting places around the country, I’ve had the
opportunity to address a roomful of judges — including, sometimes, the
highest legal officers of a state. Every time I have mingled with these
people I have come away in awe of their dedication to the law. The most
recent such event was in Alabama last year, at the time of the Roy Moore
controversy. I wrote up my impressions here.
I suppose you could say that this intense dedication to statute, precedent,
and process has its downside. It doesn’t make for very imaginative
thinking; and these folk may come to think that they are an Elect blessed
with superior wisdom. And certainly the law is sometimes, as the beadle
says in Oliver Twist, “a ass” — think of that dreadful Amirault case in
Massachusetts. On the whole, though, when I think of judges like those I
had the privilege to meet in Alabama, I’m very glad they are there, and have
the rigid principles they have, and that I don’t live in a country where the
law is just a racket run for the benefit of the powerful, as is the case in
much of the world.