Dahlia Lithwick: Jackass

I guess I have the right to be offended by people painting all New Englanders with the same brush. I don't know, nor care, where Lithwick if from. Lithwick hasn't a clue.

Metro fare from Farragut North to Union Station: $1.35
World's smallest bag of Cheez-Its from Supreme Court cafeteria: $1.65
Caribou coffee spilled all over pants: $1.85
Replacement pants to wear to oral argument: $29.99
Getting to watch David Souter wigging out in true New England fashion: priceless.

What is "true New England fashion" when describing "wigging out?" Sorry Dahlia, you're an idiot. Maybe she's missed that New England has, in earlier times, been known for its stoicism. This may not be any longer true of the southern states of the region, but it does still apply to the northern portion.

Is her characterization of Souter wrong? No. Souter is from NH, and is pretty much an idiot. He does prove that contention with his argument in Carey v. Musladin. This from the WaPo article.

There is "a pretty darn good argument" the buttons risked the defendant's right to a fair trial, Justice David Souter said. At the same time, Souter asked, "What ... do I make of the fact that not one single court has ever reached that conclusion as a constitutional matter?" He questioned where such a line would be drawn.

"What if the three buttons worn by the family of murder victim Tom Studer had said 'Hang Musladin,' would you say there was not sufficiently clear law from this court to find that practice unconstitutional?" Souter asked.

"What would you do with banners? ... Signs, placards?" asked Justice Anthony Kennedy. Or mourning family members dressed in black, wondered Chief Justice John Roberts.

Roberts apparently gets it. If this scumbag gets off due to a button with a picture on it, this country should really look at replacing the present judiciary. That finding would be proof that common sense isn't so common.

My only question is, how the hell did Souter ever get to be a judge? And is he really from NH?

Oh, wait, this explains a lot.

David Hackett Souter was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, on September 17, 1939. Although Souter grew up with his parents, Joseph and Helen, in Massachusetts, he spent many of his summers at his maternal grandparent's farm in Weare, New Hampshire. Souter's grandparents passed away when he was eleven and his family decided to move to the farm. Since then, Souter has claimed Weare as his home. Souter's father worked as a banker in the nearby state capital of Concord. He passed away in 1976, survived by Souter and his mother who still resides in a retirement community close to the Souter farm.

Souter attended a local public school where his teachers immediately recognized the great intelligence of their young student. His parents sent Souter to Concord High School where he excelled. His classmates voted him, upon graduation, the "most sophisticated" and "most likely to succeed." After high school, Souter attended Harvard University where he continued to enjoy academic success. He graduated magna cum laude in 1961 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. The recipient of a Rhodes scholarship to attend Oxford, Souter spent the next two years earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in jurisprudence from Magdalen College. Souter returned to the United States in 1963 to study law at Harvard.

He's about as much a NH native as Granted is a Massachusetts Liberal.