Amen, Brother!
Reading through the cases for Con Law this week reminded me of an amusing work in the Green Bag, Neil M. Richards' The Supreme Court Justice and "Boring" Cases. It is a truism not only of the Supreme Court Justice but of the Con Law student that for every thrilling case which decides our rights, there are a hundred more cases which are purely and simply tedious:
But as we look to identify individuals who will be good choices for federal judgeships, whether at the Supreme or lower courts, we should also look to temperament, maturity, and demeanor. It is not enough to have someone who can craft a brilliant opinion in a major constitutional ruling; we need someone who can stay awake and who pays equal attention when the tax cases, in Justice Douglas' cogent formulation, are 'droning on and on.'
The Green Bag, incidentally, is a must read. Perhaps not the most important scholarship you'll find on the net, but certainly some of the most interesting and entertaining.
