The Division of (Reasoning) Powers

Senator Arlen Specter spent time today berating the Supreme Court for striking down laws that Congress had passed, an act he termed an insult.

Specter asked Alito whether judges have some method of reasoning superior to the method of reasoning used by the Congress.

"I would never suggest that judges have superior reasoning power," Alito said.

Of course, having reasoning power is one thing. Using it is another. What's true is that a judge's rulings are routinely scrutinized for contradictions - and can be overturned by superior courts on the basis of those contradictions. Additionally, when a high court makes a contradictory ruling, they are quickly beset by lower court rulings taking different sides of the contradiction. So the judicial review process does place some premium on not getting caught in a contradiction.

I get the impression that a lot of legislators feel much less constrained by the discipline of consistency.

Is their reasoning ability
Lacking in agility?

Or does some strange affliction
Lead them to contradiction?

If they're truly perplexed,
Let's send them logic texts.

But if they just don't care,
Let's get them out of there.