Plasticity of Legal Rhetoric

That phrase, “Plasticity of Legal Rhetoric” is not mine, but Judge Posner’s which he uses in his book, “Overcoming Law. However, I had recognized the concept long before I read it in Posner’s book, which, in fact, had been brought to my attention by a judge friend of mine who had been subjected to my ravings on the topic.

I decided to discuss this issue just after looking at the non-precedential conduct, because it fits into an underlying theme, we have a legal system that has very serious flaws—one of which is the ability to ignore real facts or create fictitious facts to get a result. If judges feel comfortable doing this, then non-precedential conduct becomes an extremely useful tool in helping, as Judge Arnold noted to hide the conduct.

So how did I describe plasticity of legal rhetoric? It is stating that a fact it true and repeating it two times in place of scientific evidence, or to refute scientific evidence to the contrary. Stated another way it is holding that a brick wall does not exist as matter of law and then making sure you are not in the vicinity of the brick wall as the speeding car approaches it.

It also has other very troubling manifestations.