Quote:
Originally Posted by David Sklansky
When it goes 9-0 against your beliefs do you consider changing your mind? I don't mean changing it as far as what is right and wrong.
If the Supreme Court is acting professionally, they aren't deciding what is right and wrong, rather whether something is legal/constitutional. It's quite easy for something to be completely legal and completely immoral, or completely illegal and plainly moral.
Some of their most controversial decisions, regarding segregation or sodomy laws, have to be viewed in this light. In some cases the morally offensive decision is far more defendable from a legal point of view than most detractors like to admit. The problem is that the law/constitution underlying the decision was bad.
To answer the question more directly: the Supreme Court aren't for the most part idiots, and when they all agree on something I take the decision more seriously than when they don't. If they rule 9-0 on something and I don't like the outcome, I conclude that the decision is probably correct with respect to the law (because of the unanimity), and so therefore the law is probably bad, since I don't like the outcome. Such a judgment presupposes that I have an informed opinion about the merits of the objectives of the law.