Legal Commentary

Classic Dynamics in Internet Commenting, #4291

By Orin Kerr

My original post:

When Judge Vinson entered his ruling holding that the mandate was unconstitutional, it left the federal government in a somewhat uncertain position. Given that the mandate was subject to inconsistent decisions by district courts, and Judge Vinson declined to enter an injunction, it wasn?t clear what DOJ was supposed to do while the inevitable appeals were pending. If Judge Vinson had enjoined the Act, DOJ would have obtained a stay from the Court of Appeals while the appellate process was pending. But without an injunction, it wasn?t entirely clear if there was an actual order that needed to be stayed. In response to the uncertainty, DOJ filed a motion seeking clarification of Judge Vinson?s initial order so DOJ could know what to do next.

Commenter PJ responds:

No one in their right mind, with some command of English, could pretend that his original judgement was somehow ?vague? or ?confusing?. What part of ?This Act is unConstitutional, I therefore void it, in whole, and I assume you will follow the law ( which at this moment is my ruling ) without having to be told explicitly to follow the law. After all, you?re the government, you should know better? is hard to understand ?

My response:

Now, perhaps I am not of a right mind, but I think I know English, and I think I?m pretty familiar with how the legal system works. And I found the order quite confusing ? see my first paragraph in the post.

Commenter PJ:

IANAL. I?m just one of the poor mugs who lives here. Who wishes that the legal system weren?t a big gaming table. Who wishes JUSTICE and TRUTH were more important than PROCEDURE and TACTICS in that system.

Silly me ? I?ve gone and confused a JUSTICE system with a LEGAL system again. I keep forgetting that only my betters can actually understand the laws that rule my daily life, there are ?reasons beyond my understanding? that The Law should be left to Our Masters, our modern equivalent of cloistered monks with the rare skill of scribbening, who will draw a nice allegorical picture for us unwashed illiterates to gawk at while they decide our fate, be it temporal or eternal.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on March 04, 2011 (boomark / email).