Justice Breyer goes 0-3 on NPR news quiz

This story's headline Justice Breyer goes 0-3 on NPR news quiz didn't bother me, because it actually cut against my view of Breyer and other "Liberal"* Justices who I perceive are reading op/eds and Michael Lerner books to keep up with how they should be "interpreting" the Constitution on a week-to-week basis.

As an aside, I stumbled across this show last week while on a business roadtrip and it is very enjoyable.

But the most interesting quotation was from Paula Poundstone, who--I'll concede, is not a legal scholar, even though she certainly represents a Center-Left view of the Courts:

"But Breyer struck out when it came to the 'Not My Job' questions, failing to answer any correctly about strange moments in the lives of rock stars David Bowie, Ozzy Osbourne and Iggy Pop.

In the end, the NPR regulars confessed they were relieved that Breyer didn't know Bowie once tried to exorcise Satan from his swimming pool, Iggy Pop spent a year eating nothing but German sausages or Osbourne once asked for directions to the bar immediately after checking in to rehab.

'I feel more and more confident about your ability to protect our Constitution knowing that you didn't know the answers to any of those three questions,' Poundstone said."

(emphasis added). Poundstone apparently doesn't realize that, while Breyer's jurisprudence arguably "protect[s]" Civil Liberties, it has only theoretical interest in protecting the actual Constitution. Of course, she could have just been making a joke and referring to the general role of a Supreme Court justice . . . hey, maybe she's a Conservative?!



*This refers to judicial as opposed to political "Liberalism," though the two often overlap.