Legal Research

"North Philly, May 4, 2001. Officer Sean Devlin, Narcotics Strike Force, was working the morning shift. Undercover surveillance. The neighborhood? Tough as a three-dollar steak. Devlin knew. Five years on the beat, nine months with the Strike Force. He?d made fifteen, twenty drug busts in the neighborhood."

Fans of hard-boiled detective fiction will recognize the argot, which ideally should be spoken out of the side of the mouth.  But the author, Chief Justice Roberts of the SCOTUS, dissenting from denial of certiorari in Pennsylvania v. Dunlap, is a bit of a surprise.  What's next?  Justice Ginsburg concurring in terza rhima?  Hat tip to Law.com