Legal Commentary

Errors and Oddities on the U.S. Citizenship Test

By Orin Kerr

Dafna Linzer has the scoop over at ProPublica. An excerpt:

Then there is Question 12: What is the ?rule of law??

I showed it to lawyers and law professors. They were stumped.

There are four acceptable answers: ?Everyone must follow the law?; ?Leaders must obey the law?; ?Government must obey the law?; ?No one is above the law.?

Judge Richard Posner, the constitutional scholar who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago, was unhappy. ?These are all incorrect,? he wrote me. ?The rule of law means that judges decide cases ?without respect of persons,? that is, without considering the social status, attractiveness, etc. of the parties or their lawyers.?

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on February 24, 2011 (boomark / email).