RICHARD A. POSNER

A police officer in Chicago had refused an assignment to guard an abortion clinic that had been threatened. He was offered a transfer to a district that had no abortion clinics, but refused to be transferred. He was fired then and the courts upheld the city’s right to fire him.

In America, the best attorneys have stayed in private practice where they could make much more money than government service or become professors and scholars of law. In either case, most have a track record that would make Senate confirmation difficult even if they wanted to be Federal Judges. A few like Abraham Lincoln went into politics. The Supreme Court is somewhat of an exception because of the power it wields, but even then many great attorneys have not been so inclined. Federal judges have usually been above average as attorneys, but not among the greatest.

of the September 11 Commission

This was not an official legal opinion but his personal opinion.

He was referring to all the data that health insurance companies, retail stores, vendors such as Amazon.com, credit reporting companies, maintain on most Americans. He made the pint that private sources maintain much more private information on Americans than does the government. People acquiesce as they perceive some benefit.

This quotation from Judge Posner was particularly meaningful because previously the judge had ruled that Voter ID was constitutional. Subsequently, Voter ID laws were passed by a number of states where many of the sponsors were found to intend voter suppression. Also, it was the case that there were so few voter fraud cases in the entire country that it was highly unlikely that for the prevention of a handful of improper votes all the money would be spent by the states to implement the Voter ID laws. The real motivation was most experts concluded was voter suppression. Posner had come to that conclusion also as this quotation demonstrates.

He was referring to all the data that health insurance companies, retail stores, vendors such as Amazon.com, credit reporting companies, maintain on most Americans. He made the pint that private sources maintain much more private information on Americans than does the government. People acquiesce as they perceive some benefit.

This was not an official legal opinion but his personal opinion.

of the September 11 Commission

In America, the best attorneys have stayed in private practice where they could make much more money than government service or become professors and scholars of law. In either case, most have a track record that would make Senate confirmation difficult even if they wanted to be Federal Judges. A few like Abraham Lincoln went into politics. The Supreme Court is somewhat of an exception because of the power it wields, but even then many great attorneys have not been so inclined. Federal judges have usually been above average as attorneys, but not among the greatest.

A police officer in Chicago had refused an assignment to guard an abortion clinic that had been threatened. He was offered a transfer to a district that had no abortion clinics, but refused to be transferred. He was fired then and the courts upheld the city’s right to fire him.

This quotation from Judge Posner was particularly meaningful because previously the judge had ruled that Voter ID was constitutional. Subsequently, Voter ID laws were passed by a number of states where many of the sponsors were found to intend voter suppression. Also, it was the case that there were so few voter fraud cases in the entire country that it was highly unlikely that for the prevention of a handful of improper votes all the money would be spent by the states to implement the Voter ID laws. The real motivation was most experts concluded was voter suppression. Posner had come to that conclusion also as this quotation demonstrates.