Outlaw Justice

The news this week contains details of how two, long-time incumbent state Supreme Court Justices have been found breaking the law.

The first and most remarkable was the capture of Ohio Supreme Court Justice Alice Resnick, who was apprehended while driving erratically in a state-owned vehicle en route to Columbus. While waiting for the results of her blood-alcohol test, Resnick complained to Ohio State Troopers that she would not have had such difficulties if, as she had frequently urged, Justices of the Supreme Court were assigned state troopers as drivers, as it is with Ohio's Governor. But perhaps such arrogant blather can be explained by the fact that she tested a .21 BAC -- twice Ohio's legal limit. See link.

Until recently, Resnick was a liberal cause celebre, for her anti-free speech views in judicial races -- and even traveled to Minnesota in 2002 to urge judicial incumbents here to craft ethics rules that crowd out their political competitors.

In a second story, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Thomas G. Saylor Jr., was caught trying to smuggle a pocket knife on to an airplane, after airport screeners had once pulled him from the security line with instructions that he make other arrangements for shipping the knife. See link.

So what is the most important quality in a jurist? Modesty.

Now more than ever.