Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

When (if ever) it's appropriate to make jokes before the US Supreme Court

scotusblog.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 76 posts

Re: When (if ever) it's appropriate to make jokes before the US Supreme Court

#31

Post by platevoltage »

chabes wrote: post #27
throw101010 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you have only one party to blame for this, it also predates all the Trump unhinged cases/decisons and even his first mandate. Republicans simply suceeded in their plan to take over the federal judiciary branch from the top, in great part with the help of the Federalist Society. The only answer if Democrats ever take power back is to pack the court now, no amount of unwritten rules following and norms respecting c…

Democrats, while better than republicans in this regard, are also to blame. It is not one or the other.

Could you elaborate?

Re: When (if ever) it's appropriate to make jokes before the US Supreme Court

#32

Post by lostlogin »

chabes wrote: post #27
throw101010 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you have only one party to blame for this, it also predates all the Trump unhinged cases/decisons and even his first mandate. Republicans simply suceeded in their plan to take over the federal judiciary branch from the top, in great part with the help of the Federalist Society. The only answer if Democrats ever take power back is to pack the court now, no amount of unwritten rules following and norms respecting c…

Democrats, while better than republicans in this regard, are also to blame. It is not one or the other.

How so? The judiciary is stacked with compromised individuals. the republicans did this.

Re: When (if ever) it's appropriate to make jokes before the US Supreme Court

#33

Post by bad_username »

plagiarist wrote: post #7

I'd prefer SCOTUS to blog about when it is appropriate for a justice to fly treason flags supporting insurrectionists or decline to recuse themselves from cases involving their insurrectionist family members.

Some people are always prepared to throw political talking points at you, even if you just want to talk about the weather or whether to swear at judges, or something. Can't imagine the perpetual stress of such mental state.

Re: When (if ever) it's appropriate to make jokes before the US Supreme Court

#34

Post by boston_clone »

0xy wrote: post #17
chabes wrote: post #5

The Supreme Court is the joke… it has lost all credibility with partisan inconsistency and overt bribery.

What bribery?

Clarence and Alito have received gifts that would raise serious scrutiny if they were a “regular” government employee. Here’s a link to the series of articles covering this over the last few years.

https://www.propublica.org/series/supreme-court-scotus

Re: When (if ever) it's appropriate to make jokes before the US Supreme Court

#35

Post by chabes »

lostlogin wrote: post #32
chabes wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Democrats, while better than republicans in this regard, are also to blame. It is not one or the other.

How so? The judiciary is stacked with compromised individuals. the republicans did this.

Obama should have picked a replacement for RBG. Biden and the democratic congress should have done more to get the judiciary back in line. They had their opportunities.

Re: When (if ever) it's appropriate to make jokes before the US Supreme Court

#36

Post by watwut »

throw101010 wrote: post #10
chabes wrote: post #5

The Supreme Court is the joke… it has lost all credibility with partisan inconsistency and overt bribery.

And you have only one party to blame for this, it also predates all the Trump unhinged cases/decisons and even his first mandate. Republicans simply suceeded in their plan to take over the federal judiciary branch from the top, in great part with the help of the Federalist Society. The only answer if Democrats ever take power back is to pack the court now, no amount of unwritten rules following and norms respecting c…

This is downvoted, but true.

Re: When (if ever) it's appropriate to make jokes before the US Supreme Court

#38

Post by lostlogin »

chabes wrote: post #35
lostlogin wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? The judiciary is stacked with compromised individuals. the republicans did this.

Obama should have picked a replacement for RBG. Biden and the democratic congress should have done more to get the judiciary back in line. They had their opportunities.

Obama and Biden should have done more. But they are not responsible for the malicious and calculated mess that has followed.

Re: When (if ever) it's appropriate to make jokes before the US Supreme Court

#39

Post by arjie »

skinfaxi wrote: post #14
xrd wrote: post #12

All that precise language when addressing usually some old guy in black robes (I intentionally put it that way, I'm not in front of the court) reminds me a lot of Japanese formality rules. It drove me crazy to try to remember and assess not just how to say it in Japanese, but how to change the subject to be honorific, or extra honorific. Or change my own pronoun to ore, boku, watashi, watakushi depending on whether I…

It is about respect for the institution, regardless of the man. It is why judges are addressed as "your honor" or "judge" as it is to their integrity and their office we plead not to them as individuals.

Looking at examples of honorific usage:

"yes, officer"

"yes, doctor"

"yes, madam mayor"

"yes, senator"

These are all examples where we do use honorifics. And now for ones where we don't.

"yes, planner"

"yes, assessor"

"yes, child caseworker"

In all the cases, the institution should have integrity and we're not interacting with them as individuals but as agents of the institution. Certainly tax assessors should not be acting on their own personal beliefs but are merely mechanical agents of an impartial tax machine (as judges should be in their domain). However, in some it sounds ridiculous and in others it's natural. The existence of "yes, chef" (in a kitchen) or "yes, coach" (on a team) points to a more general reason: this is a way of expressing that the person with the title has some degree of social standing in the context we're interacting with them in.

There might be a more specific reason we can come up with that is specific to judges, but the general reason suffices to explain it.

Re: When (if ever) it's appropriate to make jokes before the US Supreme Court

#40

Post by litoE »

chabes wrote: post #35
lostlogin wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? The judiciary is stacked with compromised individuals. the republicans did this.

Obama should have picked a replacement for RBG. Biden and the democratic congress should have done more to get the judiciary back in line. They had their opportunities.

RBG passed away while Trump was president. Obama did pick a replacement for Antonin Scalia though: Merrick Garland. Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to even give Garland a hearing arguing it was "too close to the presidential election", even though Obama's term had about one year to go.
Post reply on HN