Ep. 1 - Black-Robe-Itis: Bringing Judges Back Down to Earth

In the inaugural episode of May it Displease the Court podcast, your hosts appellate attorney Mary Whiteside and rhetorical scholar Lee Pierce explore what they believe to be the fundamental flaw in the court system:  the myth of objective, impartial, independent judges that hand down justice from on high.

The myth of the deified judiciary is packaged and sold through education, entertainment and the media. Mary looks specifically at how law school indoctrinates future lawyers into the notion that the law and the Judges should be respected to the point of reverence. Lee connects the myth to some nerdy rhetoric stuff about the difference between the Book of Judges and the Book of Kings in the Bible. Even though the Bible replaces Judges with Kings, it still treats the Kings as these mythical godlike beings.

The second half of the episode looks at what has happened to this myth under the Trump administration. In addition to the myth of reverence that insulates judges from criticism, we now  have big corporate money from the Koch brothers and other pro-corporate anti-democratic funders buying judges and court decisions and plotting to ruin democracy.

Links to research cited in this episode:

• Why judges are better than kings
• Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
• Statement on the Rule of Law and an Independent Judiciary

Click here for the episode transcript 

Click here to view the episode on our website