Supreme Court- A Rigged Game
The following information from Reuters, via the Huffington Post:
Needless to say, the vast majority of these lawyers represent corporations.
Well, that's comforting. The Justices on the Supreme Court rely on a group of corporate lawyers to identify the cases they will consider. It will come as no surprise, I guess, that these guys "apply the same standards as the justices do," at least the five Justices who currently make up the court's conservative majority. Why, after all, should they decide for themselves what cases are important to the country, when they have corporate lawyers to do the job for them?
"A Reuters examination of nine years of cases shows that 66 of the 17,000 lawyers who petitioned the Supreme Court succeeded at getting their clients' appeals heard at a remarkable rate...Although they account for far less than 1 percent of lawyers who filed appeals to the Supreme Court, these attorneys were involved in 43 percent of the cases the high court chose to decide from 2004 through 2012."
Needless to say, the vast majority of these lawyers represent corporations.
"They basically are just a step ahead of us in identifying the cases that we'll take a look at," said Justice Anthony Kennedy. "They are on the front lines and they apply the same standards" as the justices do."
Well, that's comforting. The Justices on the Supreme Court rely on a group of corporate lawyers to identify the cases they will consider. It will come as no surprise, I guess, that these guys "apply the same standards as the justices do," at least the five Justices who currently make up the court's conservative majority. Why, after all, should they decide for themselves what cases are important to the country, when they have corporate lawyers to do the job for them?
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