Non Sequitur on unclogging the courts

[vakkotaur]

Yesterday's Non Sequitur desk calendar comic reminded me of some goings on: A robed character with a gavel stands, grinning at three signs. A door to a courtroom reads "Small Claims Court" while over a trash can is a sign "Petty Claims Court" and the exit has a sign which reads "Mind-numbingly Stupid Claims Court."

Comments

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

What's driving me batty lately is that the Supreme Court's decisions seem to be primarily based on the political biases of the judges, not the Constitution or established precedent. You get 5 liberals and 4 conservatives and you get one whole set of laws, a liberal retires and is replaced by a conservative, bam!, suddenly all the old laws go out the window and get replaced with a new set of laws. There's no longer a persistent rational basis for the decisions; the laws you took for granted your whole life could get tossed out the window tomorrow if one of the old fogeys falls down the stairs.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

That's always been the case, really. There decisions that were reversed, and not everyone at the time agreed it was a good thing. I do find the eminent domain decision allowing seizure for private use to be worrisome - seizure for "public" use is bad enough. The recent religious symbols and monuments decisions I'm not sure about. At first they seem to strike a reasonable balance, but the deeper it's looked at, it seems like as long there's sufficient cover someone can get a government to display their stuff without them having to maintain it and get the look if not the reality of government acceptance, which will be taken by some as promotion by absence of objection.

Of course, I was reminded of rather other things by this particular comic.

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

Stuff like burglars who injured themselves breaking into someone else's home suing for medical damages, pain, and suffering, yeah. :)