Quotes and Words of the Week

The words will be ones that interest me, whether from glancing through the dictionary, or from my weekly readings, or from my paltry storehouse of words I keep in my head.

The quote will either be something that someone says or something that I read that I think is particularly noteworthy or funny.

The current quote, in context, came from a second year law student in my Constitutional Law class. The professor asked him to recite the Supreme Court decision Skinner v. Oklahoma (1942) which shot down an Oklahoma statute allowing for the sterilization of "habitual criminals." The plaintiff had stolen some chickens and then committed two other armed robberies. When the professor asked the student about the case, the student immediately said, "Well, the plaintiff was stealing chickens . . . so naturally, the state wanted to sterilize him.” The entire room of eighty-five law students busted up laughing. It took a little while for the professor to return order to the chaos.

Moon Trauma

And now for something . . . completely different.

I briefly interrupt my possibly incoherent discussion of the pursuit of happiness to say four things.

First, the student in that news story should get what he got, and not go crying like a baby to his parents or some judge because he acted "suddenly and without about the consequences." Oh, does this mean every idiot who does something wrong should get off the hook if the act was done without thinking about the consequences? After all, isn't that part of what makes a bad person bad--they act according to their own good pleasure, little caring for effects and consequences?

Second, the litigiousness we see in this country is idiotic. I don't know who to blame: the lawyers? the judges? the people who bring suit? I blame judges most, but I think all three have a huge amount of blame. I was with a ton of lawstudents and attorneys the other day, and I mentioned that there were way too many law students graduating, and suggested that we might flood the market. An attorney who has been practicing for about ten years said, "Don't worry. The more attorneys there are, the more work there will be for attorneys to do." (I take this to mean that a good attorney can manufacture lawsuits for himself--any time someone asks, "can I sue about X or Y or Z," your immediate response, "OF COURSE!"

Third, the teacher was traumatized? Give me a break! Talk about serious issues.

Four, due to the state of the law, this lawsuit might implicate some complicated issues. I wonder what the plaintiff will allege . . . that his due process rights have been violated? I believe that, depending on the severity of the punishment, schools are required (by the Constitution, so says the Supreme Court) that certain steps must be taken by the school before exacting the punishment. For instance, an informal hearing may have been required, and maybe it wasn't given to the student, so he'll win. Will he claim that this is cruel and unusual punishment? He better have something good, because normally, a school can do ALMOST anything it wants with its students so long as it is rationally related to the educational purposes of the school.