Supreme Courtship

[1] Widely read gossip page in the New York Post, credited with introducing the neologism “canoodling” (kissing, generally someone other than one’s spouse, in a public venue) into the English language.

[2] Popular TV shows, respectively about a brutal prison and a tropical island without Starbucks where city dwellers are forced to grow their own arugula.

[3] A device to attract reporters to a state that they would otherwise never visit; its secondary purpose is to give the media something to report when the candidates whose victory they have been forecasting for months come in second and third, or not at all.

[4] Neil Armstrong, though you’d probably already gathered.

[5] Committee of questioners convened to prepare someone for a tough grilling. Originally devised by Spanish clerics in the fifteenth century.

[6] The fact that the court was split was not Declan Hardwether’s fault. The Chief Justice has only one vote, like the rest. A divided Court inevitably sends a disturbing signal. But when a Court is unanimous, or nearly so, the country is likelier to go along peacefully with its rulings, no matter how controversial they might seem. Chief Justice Earl Warren famously cajoled his fellow justices into unanimity so that he could say the word “unanimously” when announcing the 1954Brown v. Board of Education ruling abolishing segregation in schools. Warren wanted the country to see that despite internal dissent, the Court had decided to stand together on this vital issue.

[7] The prosecutor who tries to convince the canonical court that the putative saint was not only not a saint, but someone you would never invite to dinner.

[8] French term for being slowly pressed to death. Used today to describe waiting for the cable company to arrive.

[9] Overcompensated and usually self-regarding political functionaries who instruct leaders what to do, based on the biases of a largely uninformed electorate.

[10] Latin phrase meaning “to stand by things decided,” i.e., let the precedent continue in effect. The full phrase is Stare decisis et non quieta movere. Trans.: “For God’s sake, just leave it.”

[11] The President is quoting British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who famously said this to President George H. W. Bush after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. Bush promptly counterinvaded Kuwait, expelling Saddam. Mrs. Thatcher had that effect on men.

[12] Miskimin was a passenger aboard a plane that was held on the runway at Chicago ’s O’Hare airport for three days over Christmas. She finally took the controls herself while the pilots were playing backgammon with the first-class passengers and flew the plane to Omaha.

[13] Staying on the bull for the full eight seconds.

[14] Rodeo cowgirl superstition.

[15] Four letters, beginning with c.

[16] Reference to an unfortunate moment in a prior Supreme Court nomination hearing, best not dwelt upon.

[17] Popular TV series about a hand-wringing liberal U.S. president and his hand-wringing liberal staff; based on the novel Let Freedom Wring.

[18] To be ratified, an amendment to the U.S. Constitution must be approved by two-thirds votes in the House and Senate and then by three-fourths of the state legislatures.

[19] Somewhat florid legal term for a prior ruling or law considered likely to be overturned.

[20] Juvenal: the full quote is “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes,” meaning “Who shall guard the guardians themselves?” Generally invoked when figures in authority make a hash of things.

[21] The day after the new president is inaugurated on January 20. Until the 1930s, presidents were sworn in on March 4. The new date was chosen by the Congress for the probability of its being frigid and miserable.

[22] Collective term for the one-seventh of the population of Washington, DC, who opine on political matters on television.

[23] Untidy, still controversial case involving somewhat confused, largely Jewish, Democratic retirees in Palm Beach who in 2000 voted by mistake for Patrick Buchanan, an anti-Israel Republican, instead of pro- Israel Democrat Al Gore, eventually resulting in the presidency of George (not H.) W. Bush, 9/11, the Iraq War, a 40 percent decline of the U.S. dollar, the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007-2008, a fatal tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo, and a Nobel Prize for Gore.

[24] First among equals. Not Juvenal.

[25] The thing speaks for itself.

[26] 1896-1969. Venerable senator of the kind now not in abundant supply.

[27] “To thine own self be true.” Polonius’s advice to his son, Laertes, who, by poisoning the tip of his sword in the climactic duel with Hamlet, does not quite live up to the paternal admonition.

[28] A play on the book and film Seven Days in May, about an attempted military takeover of the U.S. government, an eventuality that might seem less dire given recent performances by civilian government.

[29] A sports reference, apparently.

[30] Still more Latin. “The die is cast.” What Caesar reportedly said after crossing the Rubicon.

[31] Spanish: rat.

[32] Two interwoven cloths of different texture.

[33] Richard Bernstein’s Fordham Law Review article, “The Sleeper Awakes,” a study of the Twenty-seventh Amendment: “Article V sets forth only one limitation on the types of amendments that may be proposed: ‘that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of it’s [sic] equal Suffrage in the Senate.’ ”

[34] “Judicial Review Before Marbury,” Stan. L Rev58 (2005): 455.