7 ms·

For those who don't recognize the name, this is the same judge that learned some Java for the Oracle v. Google case (and has an undergrad degree in mathematics)

For those who don't recognize the name, this is the same judge that learned some Java for the Oracle v. Google case (and has an undergrad degree in mathematics). Every time I read his name I know it's going to be a fun ride and the lawyers will not be able to get away with anywhere near as much shenanigans as they usually do. Although his ruling regarding API copyright in the Google case was overturned, he has a really strong record of making judgments that stand the test of appeals. I vote Alsup for Ginsberg's seat.

faitswulff 10y ago
His middle name is Haskell :p - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Haskell_Alsup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Haskell_Alsup
- abhgh 10y ago
  I was about to comment this. You don't mess around with this highly functional a judge ;-)
  - kupiakos 10y ago
    He wanted to bring purity to the US justice system.
    - dangoldin 10y ago
      I wish his behavior led to some side effects on the justice system.
      - matt4077 10y ago
        The courts are actually pretty first-class. Take a look at the transcript posted elsewhere in this thread for a reference to the transparency of the system, and how this judge is defending it. Supreme Court cases also make for pretty fun reading sometimes, and there's no denying that judges tend to be extremely smart and conscientious.
        deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
        nstj 10y ago
        He's definitely the kind of judge who is able to avoid all kinds of procedural problems which are typically an issue in this type of justice system.
  - kazinator 10y ago
    Strictly typed, lazy evaluator?
- nstj 10y ago
  Unrelated but I heard that after a fair bit of therapy he was able to get rid of his childhood lisp too?
- Shinchy 10y ago
  That... is actually quite a cool name.
  - tronje 10y ago
    I'm not sure if you mean the judge's entire name or the name 'Haskell', but just in case you didn't know: Haskell (the language), as well as the functional concept of currying were both named after a mathematician called Haskell Curry :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_Curry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_Curry
    - dllthomas 10y ago
      > both named after a mathematician called Haskell Curry ... who, purportedly, hated his name :-P
CobrastanJorji 10y ago
I don't know where this guy stands on the political spectrum, but I know that I respect the crap out of him. He's got my support!
- rlonstein 10y ago
  Ideally, his political leanings are not involved in his judicial decisions. For whatever it's worth he clerked for the FDR-appointed justice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_O._Douglas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_O._Douglas, was in the US Dept. of Justice under Carter and Reagan, was appointed to the federal court by Clinton, and is a registered Democrat.
  - ExactoKnight 10y ago
    We need more judges outside of the D.C. circuit. Technology knowledge is SORELY lacking among the current crop, for that reason alone we need a voice like his.
- bartvk 10y ago
  > don't know where this guy stands on the political spectrum (N/W-European here) Is that really a thing that US citizens pay attention to?
  - WalterSear 10y ago
    You have to :(
  - freehunter 10y ago
    Judges are supposed to be non-partisan, but in reality a small number of decisions come down to what basically amounts to personal preference. There are sometimes laws and decisions supporting both sides of the argument and the judge is allowed to pick, as long as they can back it up with prior rulings or laws supporting their decision. Once the judge picks, that sets a precedent for future judges to rule the same way since judges tend to value a stable set of rulings and rarely overturn previous decisions (after all the appeals are settled out, of course) unless something major has changed since then. So if a particular ruling comes down to personal preference and a judge personally leans conservative, they'll likely rule in a conservative fashion on those small number of cases. If they lean liberal, they'll likely rule in a liberal fashion. You often see this in Supreme Court decisions where the justices are split along political lines, with the conservative justices ruling for the conservative side of the argument and the liberal justices ruling for the liberal side. That being said, the political stance of most lower judges doesn't matter as they have little impact on case law and few opportunities to make political decisions in their job.
matt4077 10y ago
I like this little jab at Otto: " If his truck driving company gets shut down because of theft of trade secrets on a record that he's not willing to deny, too bad for him. Too bad."
eloff 10y ago
This is a judge that I respect. He should be on the Supreme Court.
chadcmulligan 10y ago
Indeed he's the judge Judy of tech IP trials. The java one was the first I'd ever bothered following on a regular basis, very entertaining.
- debaserab2 10y ago
  Judge Judy isn't even an actual judge, so I certainly hope he isn't the judge judy of tech IP trials.
  - dottrap 10y ago
    Judge Judy was a New York judge from 1982–1996, starting as a criminal court judge and then promoted to supervising family court judge in Manhattan, until her retirement (followed by tv show).
  - chadcmulligan 10y ago
    Isn't she? Things I learn :-/
    - eco 10y ago
      Those shows are pretty interesting. The judges aren't real judges (though most of them were judges in the past). You might wonder, as I did, why on earth defendants who are often obviously in the wrong, would agree to go on the show. The way they often work is if the plaintiff wins their judgement fee is paid by the producers of the show (not the defendant). If the defendant wins both parties receive an appearance fee. It's a binding arbitration as well so going on the show is a great deal for the defendant because there is no financial repercussions to them, it may get them out of a potential judgement in a real civil court, and they might even make some money. All it costs them is potentially looking like an idiot on national television.
      - sova 10y ago
        Thanks a lot for explaining that. I always wondered in the back of my mind how it actually fit into the legal system. Now I know it doesn't at all! But, I'm glad the participants at least have some fiscal benefit in the end
sova 10y ago
Dude he learned Java for a court case? My respect for this man grows immense. What a G. I wish more people were like this "I need some more domain-knowledge to understand what's at stake? no problem, let me do some learning." Excellent attitude.
- dlgeek 10y ago
  Continue to be impressed: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3524990/Gov-Uscourts-Cand-308136-64-0.pdf https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3524990/Gov-Uscou... https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3524989/d99f25c8-eda1-4560-90ad-9a925e368fcd.pdf https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3524989/d99f25c8-...
  - toomanybeersies 10y ago
    Interesting to note from the pdf titles that they use Wordperfect. I didn't even know it still existed.
    - mikekchar 10y ago
      Word Perfect is used for many court cases because it is the only WYSIWYG word processor that paginates footnotes according to the US legal rules. In fact, it had a lock on the DoJ market for ages (and maybe still does) based solely on that. Word could never accommodate it because it breaks backwards compatibility (and whatever you say about MS's shady past, this is something that they stuck to even though it cost them a fair amount). I worked on WP when Corel first acquired it...
  - visarga 10y ago
    > The judge is interested in learning the basic technology and learning publicly known art. This would be a good opportunity for a young lawyer to present in court. How thoughtful to promote young lawyers like that! Nice judge.
ianamartin 10y ago
Can we not get ahead of things here? Maybe put him in Scalia's seat before we worry about Ginsberg? :)
d_t_w 10y ago
In the USA do judges get assigned to cases because of their prior demonstrated ability to grasp a particular industry - or is this just a coincidence?
- SolarNet 10y ago
  It's often by self-selected committee. All the judges (or their aides) get in a room and they divvy up the cases among themselves. There is often some other things that effect that too (like "on call" judges who handle various time sensitive proceedings, or agreed upon ways to split up cases nobody wants). So judges can be assigned cases they are interested in or suited for through that system.
  - Tomte 10y ago
    Wow, I never realized that. In Germany judges must be selected "in abstract" beforehand, so that when a case is filed the judge is already determined. And the court's secretary must under no circumstances tell anyone who is next in rotation (most courts use some sort of modified rotational system), not even the judges! Any deviation would make certain that revision would be granted.

faitswulff 10y ago

His middle name is Haskell :p - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Haskell_Alsup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Haskell_Alsup

abhgh 10y ago
I was about to comment this. You don't mess around with this highly functional a judge ;-)
- kupiakos 10y ago
  He wanted to bring purity to the US justice system.
  - dangoldin 10y ago
    I wish his behavior led to some side effects on the justice system.
    - matt4077 10y ago
      The courts are actually pretty first-class. Take a look at the transcript posted elsewhere in this thread for a reference to the transparency of the system, and how this judge is defending it. Supreme Court cases also make for pretty fun reading sometimes, and there's no denying that judges tend to be extremely smart and conscientious.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - nstj 10y ago
        He's definitely the kind of judge who is able to avoid all kinds of procedural problems which are typically an issue in this type of justice system.
- kazinator 10y ago
  Strictly typed, lazy evaluator?
nstj 10y ago
Unrelated but I heard that after a fair bit of therapy he was able to get rid of his childhood lisp too?
Shinchy 10y ago
That... is actually quite a cool name.
- tronje 10y ago
  I'm not sure if you mean the judge's entire name or the name 'Haskell', but just in case you didn't know: Haskell (the language), as well as the functional concept of currying were both named after a mathematician called Haskell Curry :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_Curry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_Curry
  - dllthomas 10y ago
    > both named after a mathematician called Haskell Curry ... who, purportedly, hated his name :-P

CobrastanJorji 10y ago

I don't know where this guy stands on the political spectrum, but I know that I respect the crap out of him. He's got my support!

rlonstein 10y ago
Ideally, his political leanings are not involved in his judicial decisions. For whatever it's worth he clerked for the FDR-appointed justice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_O._Douglas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_O._Douglas, was in the US Dept. of Justice under Carter and Reagan, was appointed to the federal court by Clinton, and is a registered Democrat.
- ExactoKnight 10y ago
  We need more judges outside of the D.C. circuit. Technology knowledge is SORELY lacking among the current crop, for that reason alone we need a voice like his.
bartvk 10y ago
> don't know where this guy stands on the political spectrum (N/W-European here) Is that really a thing that US citizens pay attention to?
- WalterSear 10y ago
  You have to :(
- freehunter 10y ago
  Judges are supposed to be non-partisan, but in reality a small number of decisions come down to what basically amounts to personal preference. There are sometimes laws and decisions supporting both sides of the argument and the judge is allowed to pick, as long as they can back it up with prior rulings or laws supporting their decision. Once the judge picks, that sets a precedent for future judges to rule the same way since judges tend to value a stable set of rulings and rarely overturn previous decisions (after all the appeals are settled out, of course) unless something major has changed since then. So if a particular ruling comes down to personal preference and a judge personally leans conservative, they'll likely rule in a conservative fashion on those small number of cases. If they lean liberal, they'll likely rule in a liberal fashion. You often see this in Supreme Court decisions where the justices are split along political lines, with the conservative justices ruling for the conservative side of the argument and the liberal justices ruling for the liberal side. That being said, the political stance of most lower judges doesn't matter as they have little impact on case law and few opportunities to make political decisions in their job.

matt4077 10y ago

I like this little jab at Otto: " If his truck driving company gets shut down because of theft of trade secrets on a record that he's not willing to deny, too bad for him. Too bad."

eloff 10y ago

This is a judge that I respect. He should be on the Supreme Court.

chadcmulligan 10y ago

Indeed he's the judge Judy of tech IP trials. The java one was the first I'd ever bothered following on a regular basis, very entertaining.

debaserab2 10y ago
Judge Judy isn't even an actual judge, so I certainly hope he isn't the judge judy of tech IP trials.
- dottrap 10y ago
  Judge Judy was a New York judge from 1982–1996, starting as a criminal court judge and then promoted to supervising family court judge in Manhattan, until her retirement (followed by tv show).
- chadcmulligan 10y ago
  Isn't she? Things I learn :-/
  - eco 10y ago
    Those shows are pretty interesting. The judges aren't real judges (though most of them were judges in the past). You might wonder, as I did, why on earth defendants who are often obviously in the wrong, would agree to go on the show. The way they often work is if the plaintiff wins their judgement fee is paid by the producers of the show (not the defendant). If the defendant wins both parties receive an appearance fee. It's a binding arbitration as well so going on the show is a great deal for the defendant because there is no financial repercussions to them, it may get them out of a potential judgement in a real civil court, and they might even make some money. All it costs them is potentially looking like an idiot on national television.
    - sova 10y ago
      Thanks a lot for explaining that. I always wondered in the back of my mind how it actually fit into the legal system. Now I know it doesn't at all! But, I'm glad the participants at least have some fiscal benefit in the end

sova 10y ago

Dude he learned Java for a court case? My respect for this man grows immense. What a G. I wish more people were like this "I need some more domain-knowledge to understand what's at stake? no problem, let me do some learning." Excellent attitude.

dlgeek 10y ago
Continue to be impressed: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3524990/Gov-Uscourts-Cand-308136-64-0.pdf https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3524990/Gov-Uscou... https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3524989/d99f25c8-eda1-4560-90ad-9a925e368fcd.pdf https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3524989/d99f25c8-...
- toomanybeersies 10y ago
  Interesting to note from the pdf titles that they use Wordperfect. I didn't even know it still existed.
  - mikekchar 10y ago
    Word Perfect is used for many court cases because it is the only WYSIWYG word processor that paginates footnotes according to the US legal rules. In fact, it had a lock on the DoJ market for ages (and maybe still does) based solely on that. Word could never accommodate it because it breaks backwards compatibility (and whatever you say about MS's shady past, this is something that they stuck to even though it cost them a fair amount). I worked on WP when Corel first acquired it...
- visarga 10y ago
  > The judge is interested in learning the basic technology and learning publicly known art. This would be a good opportunity for a young lawyer to present in court. How thoughtful to promote young lawyers like that! Nice judge.

ianamartin 10y ago

Can we not get ahead of things here? Maybe put him in Scalia's seat before we worry about Ginsberg? :)

d_t_w 10y ago

In the USA do judges get assigned to cases because of their prior demonstrated ability to grasp a particular industry - or is this just a coincidence?

SolarNet 10y ago
It's often by self-selected committee. All the judges (or their aides) get in a room and they divvy up the cases among themselves. There is often some other things that effect that too (like "on call" judges who handle various time sensitive proceedings, or agreed upon ways to split up cases nobody wants). So judges can be assigned cases they are interested in or suited for through that system.
- Tomte 10y ago
  Wow, I never realized that. In Germany judges must be selected "in abstract" beforehand, so that when a case is filed the judge is already determined. And the court's secretary must under no circumstances tell anyone who is next in rotation (most courts use some sort of modified rotational system), not even the judges! Any deviation would make certain that revision would be granted.