Supreme Courtship (33 page)

^*
Staying on the bull for the full eight seconds.
(back to text)

^*
Rodeo cowgirl superstition.
(back to text)

^*
Four letters, beginning with
c
.
(back to text)

^*
Reference to an unfortunate moment in a prior Supreme Court nomination hearing, best not dwelt upon.
(back to text)

^*
Popular TV series about a hand-wringing liberal U.S. president and his hand-wringing liberal staff; based on the novel
Let Freedom Wring.
(back to text)

^*
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.
(back to text)

^*
Somewhat florid legal term for a prior ruling or law considered likely to be overturned.
(back to text)

^*
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.
(back to text)

^*
The day after the new president is inaugurated on January
20
. Until the
1930
s, presidents were sworn in on March
4
. The new date was chosen by the Congress for the probability of its being frigid and miserable.
(back to text)

^†
Collective term for the one-seventh of the population of Washington, DC, who opine on political matters on television.
(back to text)

^**
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.
(back to text)

^*
First among equals. Not Juvenal.
(back to text)

^*
The thing speaks for itself.
(back to text)

^*
1896–1969
. Venerable senator of the kind now not in abundant supply.
(back to text)

^*
“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.
(back to text)

^*
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.
(back to text)

^*
A sports reference, apparently.
(back to text)

^*
Still more Latin. “The die is cast.” What Caesar reportedly said after crossing the Rubicon.
(back to text)

^*
Spanish: rat.
(back to text)

^*
Two interwoven cloths of different texture.
(back to text)

^*
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.’ ”
(back to text)

^*
“Judicial Review Before
Marbury,
”
Stan. L Rev
58
(
2005
):
455
.
(back to text)