The Straight Dope 02/09/2007

The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com

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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 02/09/2007

Dear Cecil:

Many judges, including U.S. Supreme Court justices, are given lifetime
appointments. This presents obvious issues since judges can do a lot of
damage if they go off the deep end. How do we get rid of whacked-out
judges? Looking at it from the other side, what happens if a Supreme
Court judge is greatly disliked by, say, the president and Congress  
can they do something to give him/her the boot?--Frauendorfer, via
email

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Cecil replies:

Touchy question. On the one hand, sure, you want to able to do something
about a judge who shows up for work in a gorilla suit or gives the chair
to excise-tax protesters. On the other hand, only frothing partisans (of
whom admittedly this country has no shortage) want judges getting the
heave for not toeing the party line.

Lifetime appointments aren't just for Supreme Court justices but for all
federal judges. Under Article 3_303 of the Constitution, they "hold
their offices during good behavior." For the most part that means till
death, resignation, or retirement, but judges who misbehave badly enough
can be removed from office by impeachment, same as for the president and
"all civil officers of the United States." To judge from the impeachment
record, such misbehavior is pretty rare. To date only 17 federal
officeholders have had impeachment proceedings started against them in
the House of Representatives; of the 15 tried by the Senate (the other
two bailed first), only seven were convicted and removed from office.
Thirteen of the seventeen impeachments (and all seven convictions) were
of federal judges. Only one Supreme Court justice has been impeached:
Samuel Chase, in 1804. Historians agree the charges against Chase were
politically motivated; in any case he was acquitted by the Senate.

The fact that impeachment is a time-consuming and expensive process
deters abuse, and lifetime appointment is likewise meant to prevent
political meddling. The downside is . . .

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/070209.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

Where does the term "possession is 9/10s of the law" come from and what
does it mean?  Richard Simons, Blaine, MN  

Hey Cecil,  You know the expression "posession is nine tenths of the law"?
Well, no one ever mentions what the other tenth is. Care to hazard a 
guess?--Tom Kutlow 

SDSTAFF Gfactor replies:  

Two interesting questions, Richard, the answers to which are closely
related. You're talking about a proverb that has evolved a good deal over
the centuries, and it's only by turning to the earliest version that we
get a sense of what the saying originally meant. 

In a 1999 article in Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb
Scholarship, Nancy Magnuson Geise traces the phrase to a "play of
uncertain authorship" (some credit Shakespeare) called The Raigne of
King Edward the Third, dating from 1596. Edward III of England is
challenging the throne of King John of France. Phillip, one of John's
sons, says, "I say, my Lord, claim Edward what he can, And bring he
ne'er so plain a pedigree, Tis you are in the possession of the Crown,
And that's the surest point of all the Law."   

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpossess910.htm

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 10/19/1990

Dear Cecil: 

While watching a recent World War II documentary, I noticed the U.S.
flag with 48 stars in a 6x8 matrix. Of course now we have 50 stars, with
alternating rows of five and six. This raises several questions. When we
add a state, who makes the decision on how the stars will be arranged?
Is there a Senate subcommittee on star arrangement? Or is it done by
some bureaucratic pencil pusher--another example of the American public
having no say in matters of national importance? Finally, if the
District of Columbia becomes a state, how the heck would one arrange the
stars? Isn't this the real reason D.C. will never become a state? --Mark
Thornquist, Seattle  

Dear Mark:  

Could be--I always thought that fear-of-Jesse-Jackson-as-U.S.-senator 
stuff was a smokescreen. Fortunately, I have solved the problem. But first
some facts.  

The general appearance of the flag--13 stripes, a star for each state,
etc.--was set by Congress in 1818. The star arrangement, however, is up
to the President. The deliberations within the Eisenhower administration
on this burning issue prior to the admission of Alaska and Hawaii were
cloaked in secrecy. So we don't know if Ike convened a late-night
cabinet meeting, consulted experts in the science of tesselation (mosaic
pattern arrangement), or just worked it out himself with David's blocks.
No matter--in the end, it was a completely arbitrary exercise of
presidential power.  

Undemocratic? Sure . . .

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_303.html

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