Legal News

In Dissent, Roberts Lets Pen Flourish; Iambic Pentameter Next for Scalia?

By Dan Slater

Raymond Chandler in a 1946 portrait. (AP Photo)

Our first Law Blog submission, way back in early 2006, was a post about the passing of Michael Gilbert, who served as a partner at a British law firm while composing legal pot-boilers on his commute from Kent to London. In addition to his side career as a mystery novelist, Gilbert did legal legal work for Raymond Chandler, creator of detective Philip Marlowe.

We thought of Gilbert while reading Tony Mauro’s BLT blog post on a dissent issued this morning by Chief Justice John Roberts. The dissent from denial of review in a Fourth Amendment case called Pennsylvania v. Dunlap begins:

North Philly, May 4, 2001. Officer Sean Devlin, Narcotics Strike Force, was working the morning shift. Undercover surveillance. The neighborhood? Tough as a three­ dollar steak. Devlin knew. Five years on the beat, nine months with the Strike Force. He’d made fifteen, twenty drug busts in the neighborhood.

Devlin spotted him: a lone man on the corner. Another approached. Quick exchange of words. Cash handed over; small objects handed back. Each man then quickly on his own way. Devlin knew the guy wasn’t buying bus tokens. He radioed a description and Officer Stein picked up the buyer. Sure enough: three bags of crack in the guy’s pocket. Head downtown and book him. Just another day at the office.

Paul Levine, a mystery writer and former practicing lawyer, told Mauro: “Good for the Chief. Faux Hammett and imitation Chandler beat legalese any day.” He added, “My guess is that the Chief lost a bet with Scalia on the baseball playoffs. If Roberts wins the next wager, Scalia will have to write an opinion in iambic pentameter.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on October 14, 2008 (boomark / email).