Judge Richard Posner On SCOTUS: ‘The Supreme Court Is Awful’
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Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit had some harsh words for justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, decreeing that only two of them write readable opinions and singling out Justice Samuel A. Alito for penning “the most tedious opinion I’ve ever read.”
Above the Law covered Posner’s interview at a Chicago bookstore on the occasion of the publication of a biography of the outspoken jurist.
“I’m very critical. I don’t think the judges are very good. I think the Supreme Court is awful. I think it’s reached a real nadir. Probably only a couple of the justices, Breyer and Ginsburg, are qualified. They’re okay, they’re not great,” he said in the interview.
Above the Law’s David Lat reported that Posner also was critical of the justices’ lack of trial experience: “[I]f you look at the Supreme Court, for example, of the nine justices — I’m bringing Scalia back from the dead to have the standard number of justices — of those nine, one had been in a trial courtroom. It’s ridiculous to have an appellate judge who doesn’t have trial experience.”
