Posner for the High Court? There's some discussio...

Posner for the High Court?

There's some discussion going on between the Volokh Conspiracy, Jack Balkin, and More Prominent Matt regarding what types of legal minds to get on the bench. Now, I'm not an attorney, but one thing that strikes me as necessary is that while a Supreme Court needs people on it who can see a grand design in the Constitution and American law (the brilliant theorists like Posner, whose nomination I would also endorse), but it also needs good managers. Justices need to be able to make smart decisions about which cases to hear. Appellate courts need to be smart about how often they overturn decisions, as does the SC. The 9th Circuit is often discussed in nasty, nasty terms both because of how often it overturns district courts and then, in turn, gets overturned by the Supreme Court. Here in Montana, the Supreme Court is sometimes too willing to overturn decisions, sometimes on multiple occasions in the same case.


In a sense, though, I think Matt makes a point when he makes a cry for mediocrity on the bench. There should be some mediocre judges up there. They should not be Gods of the Law. They should have respect for decisions made by elected officials and by voters. They should be hesitant.


One thing that concerns me with Posner is that he's almost too brilliant. I think it may be better for him to impact the court through his writings than to let him argue in closed door sessions, especially because of his writings on Bush v. Gore (which I agree with, but it shows how shrewd he is, and shrewd is not necessarily what you want in the courts, and I am not being discussed as a nominee).