We let so many Supreme Court decisions wash past us in a Palinesque haze. This decision was rendered last year, and I hadn't realized what a chilling thing it was until one of our consultants threw this article under our noses.

The decision was on Scott v Harris.  It's an easy article to read, and worth it. It gave me goosebumps.

The issues, for me, area as follows:

Judges are triers of law.
Juries are triers of fact.

With this decision, not only did the supremes rip a hole through that fabric, Justice Scalia, in writing the majority decision (only one Justice disagreed) applied his logic to what every reasonable juror must think. It's not even his job to decide that, let know what is reasonable indeed.

Regardless of whether or not, in this instance, the driver was reckless, to stop the gap for all future suits is recklessness. This is an appalling decision, although I understand there is great rejoicing in police departments throughout the land.

It chills me indeed that the emotional persuasiveness of a piece of visual evidence (the videotape) could be so strongly construed so as to warp the very fabric of the legal system. Don't think this is small. This is how tort law is built. One precedent stone at a time.