Gavel to Gavel
With grades due to come out within the next few months or so, I hereby present quotes by WF in last semester's Fed Courts class.
***
Student: "Oh I don’t want to make accusations against the Supreme Court."
WF: "Go ahead, that’s what we’re here for. "
WF: “If you weren’t getting enough cynicism, here is some more.”
WF: "There's a statute that authorizes a federal judge to hold court in Humbolt County, but the last judge to do that was Sam Conti who wanted to go fishing in Eureka."
WF: “Sometimes the Supreme Court makes bad law by accident. Sometimes they make bad law on purpose.”
WF: “What I’m suggesting in a cynical, slightly mean-spirited sort of way is that State judges are elected and they want to say the ‘devil’ that is the supreme court ‘made me do it.’”
WF: “The rule makes it citable, but it’s not precedential. You can cite it all you want. Tough luck. [jolly laugh].”
Student: “I didn’t get a chance to read the majority opinion.”
WF: “It’s a Douglas opinion, it wouldn’t have helped.”
WF: “Sometimes I’m grateful academics don’t write judicial opinions. That’s an ironic remark.”
WF: “The railroads were the 19th century equivalents of Al Davis.”
WF: “Judge Givens’ article came out first because THE STANFORD LAW REVIEW IS SOOOOO SLOOOOOOOW.”
WF: [What if I made copies of the course textbook and sold them to the students] “And then I wrote letter to Dick Fallon, Dan Metzer, and David Shapiro saying ‘Ha ha.’ And they sued me for copyright infringement. What then?”
Student: “Seriously?...well clearly you’re violating the copyright act.”
WF: “I’m not contesting that. That’s why I wrote the letter.”
WF: “The reason why Justice Scalia recused himself is because he made this same point in a public speech. This is not a public speech by the way. HAHAHAHAHAHA.”
WF: “You are wrongly attributing a sense of humor to Justice Frankfurter.”
WF: “Frankfurter is one of the tragic figures of the Supreme Court.”
WF: “This is a really wicked question, Miss _____”
Miss: “I thought you were going to be nice.”
WF: “I changed my mind.”
WF: “For those of you who read law stuff instead of murder mysteries.”
WF: “What are these animals thinking when they act from their gut to make these decisions.”
Student: “Would you start with the history or the modern state?”
WF: “’You can see a lot of things by observing.’”
WF: “In the Ninth Circuit we have a mediation division. If we get a hard case, we’ll tell the parties, ‘You know we have mediation downstairs, why don’t you go down there and talk for a while.’”
WF: “You now know more about the 11th Amendment than most federal judges…even though I’m working on the 11th Amendment today which I know about, tomorrow I’m working on bankruptcy which I don’t know anything about.”
WF: “He was described as Frankfurter without the mustard.”
WF: “I can’t say the Supreme Court is wrong, the Supreme Court is right by definition.”
WF: “White doesn’t tell you why.”
Student: “That’s my job now?”
WF: “Yeah. Too bad.”
WF: “I’m past the point in my life where I think they’ll fire me for bad evaluations.”
WF: “The California Supreme Court is quite content with passing its problem cases to us. We get a lot of abuse, but they can’t can us.”
***
Student: "Oh I don’t want to make accusations against the Supreme Court."
WF: "Go ahead, that’s what we’re here for. "
WF: “If you weren’t getting enough cynicism, here is some more.”
WF: "There's a statute that authorizes a federal judge to hold court in Humbolt County, but the last judge to do that was Sam Conti who wanted to go fishing in Eureka."
WF: “Sometimes the Supreme Court makes bad law by accident. Sometimes they make bad law on purpose.”
WF: “What I’m suggesting in a cynical, slightly mean-spirited sort of way is that State judges are elected and they want to say the ‘devil’ that is the supreme court ‘made me do it.’”
WF: “The rule makes it citable, but it’s not precedential. You can cite it all you want. Tough luck. [jolly laugh].”
Student: “I didn’t get a chance to read the majority opinion.”
WF: “It’s a Douglas opinion, it wouldn’t have helped.”
WF: “Sometimes I’m grateful academics don’t write judicial opinions. That’s an ironic remark.”
WF: “The railroads were the 19th century equivalents of Al Davis.”
WF: “Judge Givens’ article came out first because THE STANFORD LAW REVIEW IS SOOOOO SLOOOOOOOW.”
WF: [What if I made copies of the course textbook and sold them to the students] “And then I wrote letter to Dick Fallon, Dan Metzer, and David Shapiro saying ‘Ha ha.’ And they sued me for copyright infringement. What then?”
Student: “Seriously?...well clearly you’re violating the copyright act.”
WF: “I’m not contesting that. That’s why I wrote the letter.”
WF: “The reason why Justice Scalia recused himself is because he made this same point in a public speech. This is not a public speech by the way. HAHAHAHAHAHA.”
WF: “You are wrongly attributing a sense of humor to Justice Frankfurter.”
WF: “Frankfurter is one of the tragic figures of the Supreme Court.”
WF: “This is a really wicked question, Miss _____”
Miss: “I thought you were going to be nice.”
WF: “I changed my mind.”
WF: “For those of you who read law stuff instead of murder mysteries.”
WF: “What are these animals thinking when they act from their gut to make these decisions.”
Student: “Would you start with the history or the modern state?”
WF: “’You can see a lot of things by observing.’”
WF: “In the Ninth Circuit we have a mediation division. If we get a hard case, we’ll tell the parties, ‘You know we have mediation downstairs, why don’t you go down there and talk for a while.’”
WF: “You now know more about the 11th Amendment than most federal judges…even though I’m working on the 11th Amendment today which I know about, tomorrow I’m working on bankruptcy which I don’t know anything about.”
WF: “He was described as Frankfurter without the mustard.”
WF: “I can’t say the Supreme Court is wrong, the Supreme Court is right by definition.”
WF: “White doesn’t tell you why.”
Student: “That’s my job now?”
WF: “Yeah. Too bad.”
WF: “I’m past the point in my life where I think they’ll fire me for bad evaluations.”
WF: “The California Supreme Court is quite content with passing its problem cases to us. We get a lot of abuse, but they can’t can us.”
Labels: Professor Quotes, The Red Menace
posted by Armen Adzhemyan at 12:23 PM
7 Comments:
Armen, I can just imagine a few of these quotes forming the basis for an attorney to demand the good judge recuse himself from a panel. Or, perhaps, lead Justice Scalia to be even more biting the next time he rebukes the Ninth Circuit.
Yeah I thought about that. These aren't like your run of the mill Moran I, Moran II, Westen, Bundy I, Bundy II and Swift quotes. But at the same time, this summer there was a lady who was not the most mentally stable running around the LA County Superior Court trying to sit on a judge "to document his bias in other cases as well as hers." Anyway, I used initials to prevent searches. Other than that, it's fair game. TF counts a professor's law review articles, I count the number of wry remarks. We have different preferences I guess.
She was trying to sit in the courtroom of a specific judge, not ON the judge. And I mention this to point out that nothing prevents an attorney from sitting in on Fed Courts classes to find bias if they're really out to find it.
i propose that boalt briefs set up an email account that all students can email "quotes heard around Boalt Hall" then the "editors" can choose the best of and publish them.
Thanks Armen. Those quotes bring back fun memories of a truly enjoyable class.
Sorry, 11:28--Boalt Briefs is apparently dead. How many issues did you count last semester? Evidently, "editors" are more prolific when they don't have girlfriends.
Consider this my way of calling out the "editors" to re-prioritize their lives and get busy.
Or put their "girlfriends" to work.
Post a Comment
<< Home