Ryan Takes the Enyart Judicial Challenge

[Jefferson]

Ryan Takes the Enyart Judicial Challenge

Tuesday May 31st, 2005. This is show # 107.

BEST QUOTE OF THE SHOW:

The problem based on a system based on precedent, which is what we have, is that there's no end to decisions. They're handed down every day. And so then, the body of law expands eternally. ...So that the law itself becomes utterly hidden by judicial decrees and those decrees are ever ongoing and so eventually to have any semblance of what the law is you need scores of lawyers. ...Because how does any one person know tens of thousands of rulings? You can't. And so therefore, the law is used as a weapon against the innocent. And then you need lawyers. So the whole concept of precedent is a mistake.

 

[Carver]

Precedent, which is the same thing as tradition, is not in and of itself a bad thing. There's a wonderful quote from G.K. Chesterton that goes:

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.

However, it is a problem when tradition goes from giving votes to those who came before us, to giving them, essentially, veto power. So does precedent have potential problems, yes, however, it's not all bad.

And by the way, that's some shady logic in the quote above. Most of the time precedent is displayed in a maximum of 5 cases. And we don't need lawyers to sort through them all. A man who lives near my father is a very smart, but also fairly simple farmer. And yet, he understands more about many aspects of the law than I would assume most Senators do. And most Senators have law degrees under their belts.