Judge Richard Posner makes a pretty stunning admission in his exit interview with the New York Times:
"I pay very little attention to legal rules, statutes, constitutional provisions," Judge Posner said. "A case is just a dispute. The first thing you do is ask yourself — forget about the law — what is a sensible resolution of this dispute?"
The next thing, he said, was to see if a recent Supreme Court precedent or some other legal obstacle stood in the way of ruling in favor of that sensible resolution. "And the answer is that's actually rarely the case," he said. "When you have a Supreme Court case or something similar, they're often extremely easy to get around."
What kind of judge publicly boasts that he pays "very little attention to legal rules, statutes, constitutional provisions"? Answer: a 78-year-old one who doesn't have to worry about being confirmed by the Senate to anything else. This can't be much consolation to those who have had to spend money appealing Posner's decisions, or even who served prison time awaiting their appeal.