“It is the judges (as we have seen) that make the common law. Do you know how they make it? Just as a man makes laws for his dog. When your dog does anything you want to break him of, you wait till he does it, and then beat him for it. This is the way you make laws for your dog: and this is the way the judges make law for you and me.”

– Jeremy Bentham, 1843.

We went on a fieldtrip to court today and the coordinator, when introducing one of the lawyers, said, “He comes from a fine lineage — his grandfather was a Supreme Court judge.”

I didn’t even try to not look embarrassed for her and, by extension, for this whole profession, where this kind of fawning elitism is so unabashed.

Update. The next morning the prof does a catch-up and the first thing she talks about is this guy’s lineage.
Oh well, at least I wasn’t the only student who wanted to scream.