Several interesting stories have cropped up over the past week. 1. In Moore County, a woman who was convicted in district court of DWI and speeding was acquitted on trial de novo in Superior Court. The unusual aspect of the case is that she admitted both offenses, but asserted the defense of necessity. According to the Pilot, she testified that her son had been seriously ill the week before. On the night in question, he suddenly doubled over in pain, told her he could not breathe, and said he thought that he was dying. She rushed him to the hospital at over 80 m.p.h. despite a BAC of .14, the result of having "drunk a glass of wine preparing dinner and several beers while cleaning the kitchen and doing laundry." The state argued that she should have called 911, or asked a nearby sober relative to make the hospital run instead. 2. Justice Thomas hasn't asked a question at oral argument in over four years. Tony Mauro, at the National Law Journal, asks whether Justice Thomas ought to be more talkative in court. Apparently, a recent graduate from the University of Florida law school has written an article arguing that Justice Thomas's legal theories don't get completely vetted because he doesn't air them at oral argument. I suspect that they get pretty completely vetted by his clerks and by the other Justices at conference, but my knowledge of the Court's inner workings is admittedly thin. 3. Also relevant to Justice Thomas, [...]
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