I’m gobsmacked that this is even possible in our highest courts. This type of sleight-of-hand is not something we see from high political authorities or scholars in my field. It may be a consequence of our requirement to cite and contend with data rather than conclusions? - ThreadSky

prasad.bsky.social • 33 days ago

I’m gobsmacked that this is even possible in our highest courts. This type of sleight-of-hand is not something we see from high political authorities or scholars in my field.

It may be a consequence of our requirement to cite and contend with data rather than conclusions?

Comments

andywaters.bsky.social•33 days ago

Trust me, it’s not sleight of hand. It’s incompetence.

sotsogm.bsky.social•32 days ago

Incompetence is the charitable explanation, and Alito ran out of charitable deference some time ago. Indeed, cherry picking is an established m.o. in his opinions.

matthewsp.bsky.social•32 days ago

Incompetence, or intentional malfeasance?

cripdyke.bsky.social•33 days ago

You know, I've developed a rule for interpreting the actions of Alito, Kegger, Thomas, et. al. "Never attribute to incompetence that which could be adequately be explained by their known malice."

kimmclarin.bsky.social•32 days ago

Yeah, I'm not buying incompetence. Though I certainly believe neither Alito nor Thomas is as smart as they think. They just think everyone else is too stupid to catch their BS. Thomas' big "gotcha" about universal injunctions on Thursday was pathetic.

sotsogm.bsky.social•32 days ago

At this point they do it with an arrogance that suggests it's not even thinking everyone is stupid, they just genuinely don't care if their claims are true or arguments persuasive. They've cherry-picked a quote to satisfy the performative part of being a Justice, and screw you if you don't like it.

jmwallach.bsky.social•33 days ago

Failure of institutions society wide. How many docs lost their license for pushing ivermectin?

prasad.bsky.social•33 days ago

AFAIK a relatively high proportion of those who did

the current SG nominee is not licensed or boarded and will not be absent a dramatic change

jmwallach.bsky.social•33 days ago

Residency is just indoctrination by big pharma!

prasad.bsky.social•33 days ago

lol

jonnypants.bsky.social•33 days ago

In arkansas we kept our doctor who was giving it to people in a local jail and telling them it was vitamins. Absolutely bonkers.

kderbyshire.bsky.social•33 days ago

Doctors are usually motivated by a desire to keep the patient alive. Lawyers are often motivated by a desire to reach a particular result.

nooneletgo.bsky.social•32 days ago

Except Alito is not acting as a lawyer here he's acting as a judge. "Let justice be done though the heavens fall" isn't just a catchy saying. For judges it should be *the* guiding principle of what they do.

You're not wrong about attorneys being focused on a result. In theory our entire system is

kderbyshire.bsky.social•32 days ago

Alito is not *supposed* to be acting as a lawyer. That’s kind of my point.

nooneletgo.bsky.social•32 days ago

founded on a belief that the attorneys on both sides devote all of their energy to obtaining the best result for their client. But that's precisely where judges step in. Their task is to consider the arguments of each side and decide which one is correct.

nooneletgo.bsky.social•32 days ago

And I apologize for carrying on, but as a (recovering) lawyer I think goes to one of the most fundamental ideas on how the system is supposed to work. I realize it doesn't always work that way or even appear to work that way, but it is an essential part of it and I hope people understand that.

oneoneder.bsky.social•33 days ago

It's a consequence of high political authorities or scholars in your field not needing to turn around consequential rulings in days, on top of their other work.

kittywashere.bsky.social•32 days ago

This seemed like it almost might work for you, but then we are reminded that there are STEM fields making life or death decisions and for that reason an expectation that the quality of work remains high - even under time pressure. It seems you’ve just embarrassed the entire legal field.

prasad.bsky.social•33 days ago

that's a fascinating explanation -- why is there such an extraneous and irrelevant constraint in non-STEM decision making? why not harmonize decision making with actual professional expertise including acute/emergent situations that are common in medicine?

it seems maladaptive at best

oneoneder.bsky.social•33 days ago

🙄

You really think this is about "STEM" vs "non-STEM"? And not the nature of scholarly or administrative publications vs legal opinions written in a day or two?

I get that you have a beef, but your beef is dumb.

prasad.bsky.social•33 days ago

I don't have a beef. It was your suggestion that motivated my question. Medical decision making happens on very short timescales.

donnagratehouse.bsky.social•32 days ago

You don't need a court's order to insert each IV in medicine. I often need one to be able to serve a party by certified mail in a civil matter.

prasad.bsky.social•33 days ago

my specific question here is the selective mis-citation of a source -- that's what the OP pointed out

it has nothing to do with the timescale of work and everything to do with the quality of work

donnagratehouse.bsky.social•32 days ago

Paralegal here and it's often my job to locate the cites in the first place. Pretty sure the SCOTUS ones who work on Alito's staff presented them correctly to his clerks. This is like blaming the nurses because the Chief of Staff did a premeditated murder on the patient.

prasad.bsky.social•33 days ago

in any case, I take your point about temporal constraints being a driving force for poor-quality work in this particular domain

kimmclarin.bsky.social•32 days ago

Yes. Doctors work under incredible time pressure. So do firemen. Even journalists. If a journalist made an interpretation error of this magnitude they would have to issue a correction. The problem is no one can force Aliito to admit his deliberate sleight of hand here, and he knows it.

paulaptb.bsky.social•32 days ago

You would think one of their 4 clerks would notice a problem, wouldn't you? These guys don't work alone. Multiple people are there to check their work.

paulaptb.bsky.social•32 days ago

Ask yourself, how long did it take a law professor with another full time job to spot the error and report it here on Bluesky?

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