Purpose

Note

Please see the disclaimer.

I am a programmer, not a lawyer.

Programmers are infamous for hating to document their work, and I have to admit that I am that category as well. As such, I would not do well as a lawyer, since lawyers have to document everything.

But I don’t really remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by law, and that goes especially for the court system in general and the Supreme Court in particular.

In fact, I have been interested in the Supreme Court for a long time. It’s always been a unattainable dream of mine to one day sit on the Court. I knew that would never happen, but that didn’t stop me from finding other ways to satisfy that dream.

When I was first learning to program Android apps in 2011, one of my ideas was to make an app that would allow users to read the briefs and listen to the arguments of current and historically significant Supreme Court cases and then make their own decisions.

Such an app would allow me to live my dream by proxy. Unfortunately, that app never happened, so I have yet to satisfy that dream.

About three years ago, the idea for this blog began germinating in my head. I would think about it as I was parking cars for the Provo City Center Temple Open House. I came up with the title. I even reserved the name on Blogger, created the initial theme, and wrote the first post, which this page has been created from.

But I never actually began. Until now.

Well, when I wrote the original first post on 08 Oct 2016, I had just met a woman. I did not know it at the time I wrote that post, but we would get married four months later.

Needless to say, it was a distraction.

But why now?

Over the course of 4 or so years, I have watched the political climate in this country, and it has worried me. I have also watched as large corporations have violated natural rights and helped a massive government surveillance program collect data they should not have while censoring those they don’t agree with.

And I wanted to do something.

Note

I also got off of Blogger and made my own website, mostly so I could make it as lean as possible.

Of course, there is little I can do to affect the direction this country takes. Yes, this nation tends to turn on the decisions of the nine men and women on the Court, and I can’t affect them. But even so, I might be able to affect the minds of other Americans.

And yet, the title of this blog hints at a hope far greater than that. The words “court” and “precedent” are typical in this field, and yes, I combined them to make the title, but I used the word “courting” on purpose.

The definition that I intended is “to seek to gain or achieve [something].”¹ I am seeking precedent that may, in fact, reach the eyes and ears of the justices.

And in that way, I just might effect some change.

But yes, this blog is also about satisfying that adolescent desire, and that’s what has decided the format of this blog.

Each post will be about a current, or maybe historically significant, Supreme Court case in which I don’t agree with the written opinion by the side that I will join. As such, I will write my own opinion, either concurring or dissenting, in the format that the justices issue theirs (adjusted for the blog medium), as though I were the tenth justice on the Court.

There is one other option that, in rare cases, might happen. If I don’t agree with a unanimous decision, I will write my own dissenting opinion.

Note

Because I am writing an opinion blog, not a legal blog, my “opinions” will not be a strict legal analysis; instead, they will be an elucidation of the how the principles of my [judicial philosophy][7] interact with the law as it currently stands and what judgment I would make.

Now, even though I will be pretending like my opinions matter, let me make it clear: my opinions are not, and never will be, binding!

Warning

Also, I am not a lawyer. My opinions do not constitute legal advice, nor are they legal documents. If you take them as such, you assume all liability. In fact, since I am not trained in this field, I will probably make a lot of obvious mistakes. Please contact me about correcting them because I hope that, by making those mistakes and correcting them, I learn a lot about this extraordinary nation and the laws that keep us safe.

And maybe, in some small way, I may learn a lot about the most fascinating Court in this country.

So thus it begins.