Thursday, January 06, 2005
Favorite legal moment of 2004
Tired of "best of 2004" lists yet?
I hope not, 'cause here I go...
This year saw some interesting things (a.k.a. Courtney Love and Michael Jackson) in the courts. My favorite, however, was in a dissenting opinion written by Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Eakin. Obviously drawing from a nostalgic love of classic TV and the show "Mister Ed", Justice Eakin writes the following regarding the enforcement of drunk-driving laws against persons on horseback:
“A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
but the Vehicle Code does not divorce
its application from, perforce,
a steed as my colleagues said.
‘It's not vague,' I'll say until I'm hoarse,
and whether a car, a truck or horse
this law applies with equal force,
and I'd reverse instead."
Beautiful. And I thought stuff like this only happened in Texas...
I hope not, 'cause here I go...
This year saw some interesting things (a.k.a. Courtney Love and Michael Jackson) in the courts. My favorite, however, was in a dissenting opinion written by Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Eakin. Obviously drawing from a nostalgic love of classic TV and the show "Mister Ed", Justice Eakin writes the following regarding the enforcement of drunk-driving laws against persons on horseback:
“A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
but the Vehicle Code does not divorce
its application from, perforce,
a steed as my colleagues said.
‘It's not vague,' I'll say until I'm hoarse,
and whether a car, a truck or horse
this law applies with equal force,
and I'd reverse instead."
Beautiful. And I thought stuff like this only happened in Texas...
R.T. Lemur 1:00 PM
3 Comments:
Also, he used that song from The Wizard of OZ, a horse of a different color.
How does one pull over a drunk on a horse? Was he swerving?
Actually, that's a very interesting question.
Although their exact level of intelligence may be open to debate, horses are very smart and are certainly not completely unintelligent machines like cars and motorbikes. Even a highly trained horse would be unlikely, I think, to crash into something else solely based on the poor judgment of the drunken human directing him.
Now, if the horse were drunk, that would be another matter. That would be an interesting anecdote...
Although their exact level of intelligence may be open to debate, horses are very smart and are certainly not completely unintelligent machines like cars and motorbikes. Even a highly trained horse would be unlikely, I think, to crash into something else solely based on the poor judgment of the drunken human directing him.
Now, if the horse were drunk, that would be another matter. That would be an interesting anecdote...