The DJ reports on Justice Kagan's visit to UCLA last week in
Justice Elena Kagan Discusses Value of High Court Consensus:
She said actively working to find consensus when possible bolsters that legitimacy, particularly when the court only has eight justices. The court has recently been one justice short after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in 2016 and after Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement in June.
The court worked to minimize evenly split decisions when possible, Kagan said.
“None of us wanted for the court to look as though the court couldn’t do its job,” she said. “I think we all felt as though the country needed to feel that the court was a functioning institution, whatever was happening outside.”
Building consensus on smaller issues was one way to issue more unanimous opinions, she said.
Also in today's DJ is PJ Gilberts Under Submission column,
Who Cares About a Fazioli?, which concludes:
But that
question may be beside the point. Professor Wu expressed one of the most
profound insights in the third paragraph of his column: "At all levels of
education, from high school to college to beyond, the capabilities once deemed
necessary to function as a citizen in a democracy have come under existential
doubt." Take a look around you. Consider what is occurring throughout the
country. An uneducated citizenry and one predominantly educated in solely
technical skills put us and our democratic institutions at risk.
The 5th DCA takes it show on the road by hearing two criminal appeals at the Kern County Administrative Center in Bakersfield on October 11 before an audience of over 300 students. Details
here. The session will be live-streamed.
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