Oregon Legal Research Blog
It’s also not easy to do the right thing for a man and his monkey.
The Tyranny of Small Laws: Beds illuminates the way too difficult life of a compassionate bench officer (by Justice William W. Bedsworth):
Excerpt:
‘G.K. Chesterton said, “When you break the big laws, you do not get liberty. You do not even get anarchy. You get small laws.” And when you break the small laws, some poor judge gets another ulcer.
Before Pete Wilson went walkabout and gave me the absolute best job in the legal system, I had the second best job: trial judge.(1) I loved being a trial judge. It was like being a big league umpire: All you had to do was yell “safe” or “out” occasionally and you got to watch the ballgame for free.
But it’s not all black robes and bar association canapés. Sometimes it’s like driving around all day with a flat tire: You get where you have to be, but you have to go way slower than you wanted, and the constant wap-wap-wap drives you crazy. Most of those days involve “small laws….” ‘ A Criminal Waste of Space
Just wait until Justice Bedsworth gets hold of our In re one black-tailed doe deer named “Snowball” case.