So weird to think that the Olympics are over (or, will be, once NBC’s done showing the closing ceremonies). I was getting so used to the non-stop sports (especially watching the interesting obscure sports – triathalon, canoeing, mountain biking, weightlifting, taekwondo, speeding walking (way weird) and more). Weird men’s marathon too – when the wacko came out to stop the lead runner. At least the runner got back in there and won a bronze (the others were already closing in on him before the wacko jumped him). Well, goodbye to all that Zorba-the-Greek music.
Four more years before Beijing 2008.
And, on the eve of the Republican Convention, Slate.com’s Dahlia Lithwick (at the NY Times as a guest editor) is talking about the U.S. Supreme Court justices and what they do during the summer. Lithwick notes:
The Supreme Court is by far the most mysterious branch of government – its members glimpsed only rarely, like Bigfoot, crashing through the forest at twilight. The court is the one branch that operates in near secrecy – no cameras, no tape recorders, no explanations, no press conferences, rare interviews, no review by other branches. The most powerful branch is also the most enigmatic. They love it that way.
So how do the justices spend their summers? Some travel to exotic locales, where they get paid lots of money to teach at fabulous seaside summer law school programs. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg taught at Hofstra University law school’s program in Nice, France, this summer, while Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist taught at Tulane’s program at Cambridge.
What else do they do with their summers? Since all four justices over age 70 are hostages to their mutually-assured-destruction refusal to retire (each unwilling to give an opposing president the chance to fill a seat), they probably do lots of resting. Even one extra day on that court may mean casting the deciding vote in Bush v. Kerry – a case poised to detonate over the legal landscape this winter, the moment the recount starts in Ohio.
Oh, I don’t know. I’m not eager for a Bush v. Kerry, really, I’m not.
Have a good week. Watch out for my political commentary… (and me wanting to avoid the protestors in town…)