The Dunning-Kruger effect

Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh (right) and Neil Gorsuch at a White House ceremony in 2018. Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Dunning-Kruger effect

Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition. The problem with it is we see it in other people, and we don't see it in ourselves. The first rule of the Dunning–Kruger club is you don't know you're a member of the Dunning–Kruger club. - David Dunning

The justices are awful at their jobs, and they don’t know that they are awful at their jobs.

The justices are barely able to manage their own docket, even though it’s been shrinking for decades. They publish incompetently drafted decisions that sow confusion throughout the judiciary, then refuse to accept responsibility when those decisions lead to ridiculous and immoral outcomes. They take liberties with the facts of their cases, and they can’t even be trusted to read the plain text of an unambiguous statute correctly. In just the last few years, they’ve overruled so many seminal precedents that law professors no longer know how to teach their classes.

If the justices did not wield such awesome power, and if lawyers who practice before them did not have to treat them with ritualized obsequiousness, most of the justices would be laughingstocks. Few people this famous are so ostentatiously bad at their jobs.

And yet, despite their incompetence, the justices continue to claim more and more power — even though they simply do not have the personnel or expertise needed to address every policy question they’ve added to their own plates.

The Emperor's New Clothes - Vilhelm Pedersen (1820 - 1859) - English Wikipedia

The justices surround themselves with the trappings of competency. They have fancy degrees, and they are advised by law clerks with impressive resumes and stratospheric law school GPAs. They write opinions that make proper use of English grammar — something that, admittedly, neither major party’s presidential candidate appears capable of doing.

As per the esteemed Dirty Harry: One must know one's limitations.