4 ms·

Actually one can. Just like the cause of a hanged man's death is the knot the hangman tied. There's a great big sequence of events preceding it for sure.

• saalweachter 11y ago
  That's not really an apt analogy; if a hangman refuses to tie a knot, they'll find another hangman. The Supreme Court Justice specifically gets to choose one way or the other.
  • ethbro 11y ago
    No, he or she doesn't. Because if they did so arbitrarily then they have likely long since been thrown off the lower benches. A judge doesn't decide: a judge weighs evidence and then states which interpretation of the law they believe is correct. If we had a judicial system arbitrated over by people who could simply say "I want this outcome" and make it so, then the country would and should crumble.
    • saalweachter 11y ago
      ... if?