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Comment by bluGill

5 days ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

I do not defend conservatives when they don't follow the letter of the law. Except perhaps in cases where the law itself is unjust - however that is not your argument here so we can ignore that. There have also been cases where I didn't understand the full law and so have had to change my mind once I realized what I'm missing - but that doesn't seem to be the case here either.

On topic is a violation of the law. It isn't just a technicality here either, it is a big deal that when there are large effects of a potential rule we ensure we take the time to figure out what the real effects of it are. There are all too often unexpected downsides to some rule/law and when those downsides are bad enough the results can be worse than the problem you are trying to prevent. (it might not be in this case - but time was not given to figure out if that is the case so we don't know)

If you follow this stuff enough, you know that any court worth it's salt can come up with justifications for any ruling it wants, that they are often dissenting opinions (statistically much less so in this, the most conservative court in the country), and that another, totally unrelated technicality will sometimes be 'discovered' by a subsequent court in subsequent appeals. I mean just look at the absurd acrobatics going on in the SC these days.

But I love the IDEA of then justice system you're pretending exists.