Thursday, December 11, 2014

rule of law: some "people" are just more deserving


Reuters | WASHINGTON – The marble façade of the U.S. Supreme Court building proclaims a high ideal: “Equal Justice Under Law.”
But inside, an elite cadre of lawyers has emerged as first among equals, giving their clients a disproportionate chance to influence the law of the land.
A Reuters examination of nine years of cases shows that 66 of the 17,000 lawyers who petitioned the Supreme Court succeeded at getting their clients’ appeals heard at a remarkable rate. Their appeals were at least six times more likely to be accepted by the court than were all others filed by private lawyers during that period.
The lawyers are the most influential members of one of the most powerful specialties in America: the business of practicing before the Supreme Court. None of these lawyers is a household name. But many are familiar to the nine justices. That’s because about half worked for justices past or present, and some socialize with them.
They are the elite of the elite: Although they account for far less than 1 percent of lawyers who filed appeals to the Supreme Court, these attorneys were involved in 43 percent of the cases the high court chose to decide from 2004 through 2012.
The Reuters examination of the Supreme Court’s docket, the most comprehensive ever, suggests that the justices essentially have added a new criterion to whether the court takes an appeal – one that goes beyond the merits of a case and extends to the merits of the lawyer who is bringing it.
The results: a decided advantage for corporate America, and a growing insularity at the court. Some legal experts contend that the reliance on a small cluster of specialists, most working on behalf of businesses, has turned the Supreme Court into an echo chamber – a place where an elite group of jurists embraces an elite group of lawyers who reinforce narrow views of how the law should be construed.

1 comments:

CNu said...

from The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus,: "That which
is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above
corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracle of the One
Thing." - two parties, one ideology - the Law - like Soylent Green - is people. Excellent catch at the top, wash, rinse, repeat for every level right on down the chain to podunk little municipal courts and voila!


If insider trading is illegal and deemed to be "bad" for the common good of the market, what the cluck is this fustery for the rule of law?

Master Arbitrageur Nancy Pelosi Is At It Again....,

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