[AnAmericanMother]

You would think Ginsburg could, but you would be wrong. She can't even stay awake on the bench.

There was a political appointment here a number of years ago. Nice lady, a law school classmate of mine, but very little actual courtroom experience (she was primarily a politician and her law practice was limited to bond issues, I think). A Great Moment in Legal History when at an arraignment one of the lawyers asked for a Jackson-Denno hearing, and she responded, "How soon can you have Mr. Jackson and Mr. Denno here?"

Multiple face-palms all down the bar.

[muawiyah]

I thought Ginsburg was off the morphine ~ her pancreatic cancer was killing her during that period. The one I don't think could handle a court session by herself anymore is Sotomayor. She's already suffering from that brittle bone condition you get after 45 years of using artificial insulin. Eventually she'll be sitting there and she'll just break down ~ it is necessary for her to get up and move to alleviate cramping.

Sounds horrible. It is horrible. She was just walking across an airport concourse and broke her ankle ~ no stumble ~ nothing ~ just brittle bones giving way.

[muawiyah]

Jackson-Denno being, of course, arcane lawyer jargon referring to a specific case ~ when you are writing a regulation you cannot assume any special knowledge on the part of the target audience. If you have a very large target audience and you know lawyers have a tendency to fall into jargon, then you must not allow a lawyer to write the rule.

You bring in lawyers to REVIEW the rule to provide counsel as necessary. But you don't let them write any of the words.

I was usually unsuccessful in convincing CPAs of the fact that they were ONLY to review the accounting features and standards, NOT REWRITE THE RULES.

Accountants appear to be constitutionally incapable of writing anything anyone can understand. Lawyers try, but they are trained to obfuscate and confuse.

Oh the Huge Manitee!