Hawaii Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Building Thirty Meter Telescope

Re:Hawaii Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Building Thirty Me... by lupire on Wednesday October 31, 2018 @04:25PM (#18348996)

This is a common problem with Supreme Court cases. They cases often touch on major, substantive issues, but the legal question that the Court decides is a technical detail.

You can interpret this as either: Judges decide how they want the case to go, and can find a loophole for either the appellant or the appellee (as well evidenced by the frequency of 5-4 decisions); or that the public simple misunderstands the meaning of most cases' decisions.

The problem is exacerbated by the Supreme Court's limited time-budget for cases, and its interest in taking on a wide diversity of cases. A case may set precedent for many future similar cases, even if the Court's rationale for the decision isn't relevant to those other cases.

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Re:Hawaii Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Building Thirty Me... by dragonwriter on Wednesday October 31, 2018 @04:28PM (#18349014)

> A case may set precedent for many future similar cases, even if the Court's rationale for the decision isn't relevant to those other cases.

Since the thing that sets precedent is the rationale, not the outcome alone, this isn't really true.

[ Parent | on HN ]