"The judge ... is not to innovate at pleasure," Inside Beltway Attorney Quotes Cardozo

Our Inside the Beltway attorney contacted me about the Rhode Island Supreme Court ruling overturning the lead paint verdict.  Here it is that opinion.

**************************************************************************************************************************

Inside the Beltway Attorney, off the record:

"The Chief Justice's quote from learned U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo is very telling about the perception of Judge Silverstein's apparent bent in this protracted case:

"'The judge ... is not to innovate at pleasure.  He is not a knight-errant roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of goodness.  He is to draw his inspiration from consecrated principles.  He is not to yield to spasmodic sentiment, to vague and unregulated benevolence.  He is to exercise a discretion informed by tradition, methodized by analogy, disciplined by system, and subordinated to the primordial necessity of order in the social life.'

"Now, unburdened with the distraction of this case, Rhode Island can get on with the serious business of reducing its current 651 annual cases of childhood lead poisoning to zero.  That would be the true pursuit of goodness."

**********************************************************************************************************************