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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Courts - "Too Smart for his Own Good"?

7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard A Posner's new book is the subject of a commentary today by the Washington Post's Andrew Cohen. Cohen both cites The New York Times' respected book reviewer Michiko Kakutani's review of the prolific author Posner's lastest book, plus adds a critique of his own, leading to Cohen's title for his piece, "Too Smart for his Own Good."

Cohen begins:

Like Michiko Kakutani, I just finished reading, "Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency," the latest book written by 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard A Posner. And, like Kakutani, I thought it was a real crock.

The famous book critic says that "many of Judge Posner's arguments in this book are riddled with self-serving contradictions" and "other arguments in this volume are no more than unsubstantiated -- indeed, highly dubious -- assertions... By the end of this chilling book," Kakutani writes, "the reader realizes that Judge Posner is willing to use virtually any argument -- logical or not -- to redefine constitutionally guaranteed rights like freedom of speech during wartime."

Here is Kakutani's review, titled "A Jurist’s Argument for Bending the Constitution."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 20, 2006 05:00 PM
Posted to Courts in general