Look it up in your Funk & Wagnall's

Generally, when my grevious ignorance of legal terms and concepts raises its ugly head, I was able to send off an e-mail to my brother, who would send back a pithy and helpful response. Unfortunately for me, my brother was promoted and moved to civil law from habeas corpus, so he has absolutely no time to repair my faulty education. This is not good, as there are some points I'm a little fuzzy on which were discussed during the Roberts hearings. Rather, they were raised by the senators of the committee and Roberts dodged and weaved like a legal Casius Clay, only without the punching. Ah! I thought. I shall have to look it up in my Funk & Wagnall's! Unfortunately, I don't have my own copy of the venerable dictionary and I don't know where Mom put hers, so, off to Wikipedia! I post the following to help those who may not have a law degree and were also listening to the hearings.

Stare decisis: Stare decisis (Latin:[?stare? ?dekisis], Anglicisation:[?sta??i d??sa?s?s], 'to stand by things decided') is a Latin legal term, used in common law to express the notion that prior court decisions must be recognized as precedents, according to case law.

This doctrine is not held within most civil law jurisdictions as it is argued that this principle interferes with the right of judges to interpret law and the right of the legislature to make law. Most such systems, however, recognize the concept of jurisprudence constante, which argues that even though judges are independent, they should rule in a predictable and non-chaotic manner. Therefore, judges' right to interpret law does not preclude the adoption of a small number of selected binding case laws."

Habeas corpus: "In English Common Law habeas corpus is the name of several writs which may be issued by a judge ordering a prisoner to be brought before the court. More commonly, the name refers to a specific writ known in full as habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, a prerogative writ ordering that a prisoner be brought to the court so it can be determined whether or not he is being imprisoned lawfully.

The words habeas corpus ad subjiciendum are Latin for 'You (shall) have/hold the body to be subjected to (examination)', and are taken from the opening words of the writ in medieval times. Other habeas corpus writs also existed, e.g. habeas corpus ad testificandum ('You (shall) have/hold the body to bear witness', for the production of a prisoner to give evidence in court.

Known as the 'Great Writ', the writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum could formerly be used not only in criminal cases, but in cases of imprisonment for private debt. In many jurisdictions today the writ can also be issued against private individuals."

Other Latin legal terms can be found here, which is a useful resource for the lay person trying to follow some of the denser discussion at the hearings. It's your country, it's your laws, it's your Constitution. You should be able to understand what the people who represent you are saying when they discuss them.

Coming Up Next... A posting on the Mississippi flood of 1927 which you may find certain events during the aftermath to be eerily familiar.