Archive for October 7th, 2008
Incomplete information to make a judgment
18 CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: I don’t know what
19 the situation is like in Dale County. They probably
20 don’t have the latest version of WordPerfect, or
21 whatever it is. They are probably making do with
22 whatever they can under their budget and doing the best
23 they can.
There are several ways to read this statement.
- Roberts doesn’t know that WordPerfect isn’t used any more. This means Roberts has been out of touch for 20+ years with the development of technology.
- Roberts is a geek, and knows that WordPerfect isn’t used any more; by saying Dale County doesn’t have the latest version, he’s saying that they’re just a level above banging rocks together to manage warrants. This means Roberts is an alpha-geek, inserting /.-level slams on other people into random chatter at the Supreme Court.
- WordPerfect is far more prevalent in the legal world that I was previously aware.
I don’t know which of the three is more frightening.
From Herring v United States (pdf), via Orin Kerr
