Eugster Law & Comment

We like to think the Supreme Court is the highest point of the wisdom of our country.  From the minds of nine people dressed in robes and distant from the great swarm of people who employ them, come the great truths upon which we govern ourselves.  We would think The Nine are on top of all of the important issues of our society, our government.  We would like to think The Nine are so much more than all of rest of us and greater than each of the other institutions of government.  In fact, they probably are.  But one should not think they are really on top of it all. 

There are hundreds of thousands of legal disputes which wind their way through the judicial system in a year.  The Nine are petitioned to take cases in about 11,000 instances.  Of this vast array of cases, The Nine take a paltry few.  And, how is it that they cull the cases that come to them.  This is done primarily by law clerks hired by the judges.  These clerks are usually very bright, ambitious, recent graduates of a top law school.  They about 26 years of age and have really done nothing during their 26 years except be students.  They also have overwhelmingly high opinions of themselves.  Another fact which must be acknowledged is that they have a tendency on the whole to be conformists.

One does not mean to complain.  But one does wonder whether we have really developed the best system.