Balkin Joke 

Balkin Joke

Sandra Day O'Connor rules on the 10 Commandments--upholding five, and striking down five.

One could add: she writes for a 5-4 majority. Scalia writes a withering dissent, in which he says among other things: when the Court picks and chooses in this arbitrary fashion, it demonstrates for the world to see that it is not offering a more or less plausible reading of a founding document; it is merely expressing the personal preferences of the justices who happen (for better or worse) to sit on the bench today.

O'Connor, having read Scalia's dissent, writes: it is hardly the sanest or healthiest approach to human life to cling to a rigid rule, exactly as written long ago, despite the many exigencies and changing circumstances that we face every day. It seems to us much wiser to adapt to circumstance, while keeping the deep moral truth of the rules in mind. Consistency, as Dr. Johnson said, is the hobgoblin of small minds--and it is not unknown in psychiatric wards.