02-15-2016, 08:13 PM
(02-15-2016, 07:10 PM)michaelsean Wrote: “If someone with a job roughly like my own, facing a legal problem roughly like the one confronting me, interpreting a document that resembles the one I look to, has written a legal opinion about a similar matter, why not read what that judge has said?”-Justice Breyer on judicial rulings from other countries. That is not any interpretation of our Constitution.
If he said it was the only thing or if he said that he based his decisions on them, you'd have a point. Being a justice at their level is as much about philosophy as it is law, and reading up on approaches in situations similar to what they are facing means nothing other than learning how others have approached them. It doesn't mean anything more. We've seen all sorts of thing quoted in decisions that aren't from prior court cases or legal documents, and those are no different.
