Dinner with Obama

Earlier this year, S. and I had dinner with the Barack Obama.  Well, he didn’t actually eat with us, but he was there while we were eating.  Actually, we weren’t eating when he was in the room with us, but we had finished our salad before he came in.  Never mind the details.  We met, spoke to, shook hands with, had our pictures taken with President Barack Obama and his lovely First Lady, Michelle (from whom I got a classic, big Michelle hug).  To say this was a high point in our political/social life would be a  understatement of indescribable dimensions.  You should view this in the context of knowing that I’m not a celeb kind of guy.  The...

SCOTUS

As promised, I propose in this posting to bring light to one of the many mysteries of the Court.  But first the preliminaries.  I am sure that, you know the history and jurisdictional authority of the Supreme Court, so I will only add a thought or two to refresh your memory.  Article III, Section 1 says in part, “the judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish….”.  It goes on for the next couple of sections to talk about jurisdictional matters.  You know the stuff, suits between the states, suits between the states and the...

Judging From My Experience

Of course you know that SCOTUS is the operative acronym for the Supreme Court of the United States as POTUS is…well you get the drift.  In the last few days of the Court’s term the media and a small, elite group of supreme court watchers are ever on point on whether and how SCOTUS will rule on the cases of the day.  Most of us have little idea of the actual substance of the cases and have even less understanding of the often arcane logic that is exercised in reaching their decisions.  Count me as one of the non-elite, small group of Supreme Court watchers.  I’ve long been fascinated by what they say and why they say it. I’m not without...