{"id":4910,"date":"2010-11-20T03:43:03","date_gmt":"2010-11-20T03:43:03","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-20T03:43:03","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=4910","title":{"rendered":"NYT: SCOTUS in decline in quality of work"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the NYT: Justices Are Long on Words but Short on Guidance<\/a> by Adam Liptak:<\/p>\n

In June, the Supreme Court issued a decision on the privacy rights of a police officer whose sexually explicit text messages had been reviewed by his employer. Ever since, lower court judges have struggled to figure out what the decision means. <\/p>\n

The case \u201ctouches issues of far-reaching significance,\u201d Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote. Then he explained why the court would decide none of them. A definitive ruling should be avoided, he said, because \u201cit might have implications for future cases that cannot be predicted.\u201d <\/p>\n

Justice Antonin Scalia went along with the decision, but he blasted his colleagues for \u201cissuing opaque opinions.\u201d <\/p>\n

A month later, Judge Frank M. Hull of the federal appeals court in Atlanta complained that the privacy decision featured \u201ca marked lack of clarity,\u201d and was almost aggressively unhelpful to judges and lawyers. <\/p>\n

The Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is often criticized for issuing sweeping and politically polarized decisions. But there is an emerging parallel critique as well, this one concerned with the quality of the court\u2019s judicial craftsmanship. <\/p>\n

In decisions on questions great and small, the court often provides only limited or ambiguous guidance to lower courts. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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