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What makes the current Supreme Court lineup of justices so different from the previous versions of the Court? For starters, according to , the justices – for all their differences – are still very much alike.

According to University of Tennessee law professor Benjamin H. Barton, who crunched the data on current and past justices, while most versions of the Court included justices from varying backgrounds, geographic areas and vocations, the paths of the current justices were largely the same: East or West Coast upbringings, elite schools, professorial posts and federal judgeships.

“Roberts Court justices have spent more pre-appointment time in legal academia, appellate judging, and living in Washington, D.C. than any previous Supreme Court,” Barton wrote of the current Court, which he calls an “outlier.” “They also spent the most time in elite undergraduate and law school settings.”

That means, despite the fact that the current Court has more racial and gender diversity than ever, in other ways it’s more homogenous than it’s ever been.

“The Roberts Court justices spent less time in the private practice of law, in trial judging, and as elected politicians than any previous court,” Barton noted.

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One of the issues the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court had to grapple with Wednesday during oral arguments in the Stolen Valor Act case U.S. v. Alvarez was whether the act of lying harms someone.

The justices considered lying in various contexts outside the one at issue in the case, which involved a man who repeatedly said he was a decorated war veteran when he wasn’t.

But Justice Sonia Sotomayor considered the harm that might be inflicted by another type of fib.

When someone claims to have “an honor they didn’t receive, … outside of the emotional reaction, where’s the harm?” Sotomayor began.  “And I’m not minimizing it. I too take offense when people make these kinds of claims, but I take offense when someone I’m dating makes a claim that’s not true.”

The comment drew laughter from the crowd. Later in the argument, the justice returned to the theme.

“On a date,” the justice said, a lie could “induce a young woman to date someone who she thinks is more of a professional,” and that could also “harm the parents [and] the family.”

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There are problems with the nation’s federal court system. And according to Justice Antonin Scalia, one of those problems is a flood of petty criminal cases – better suited for state courts – that have turned the U.S. Supreme Court into a “court of criminal appeals.”

Federal courts are clogged with “nickel and dime criminal cases,” Scalia told attendees of an American Bar Association meeting in New Orleans earlier this month, . He called the situation “probably regrettable” and added that it doesn’t reflect “what the federal courts were set up for.”

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When retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor cracks political jokes, people laugh.

That was the case last weekend at an exclusive black-tie gathering of Washington’s elite when O’Connor drew the biggest laugh of the night, according to attendees.

At the Alfalfa Club dinner, which drew President Barack Obama, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Justice Anthony Kennedy among others, O’Connor quipped about GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, noting: “one is a practicing polygamist, and he’s not even the Mormon,” the .

DC Dicta runs courtesy of Lawyers USA, a sister publication of the Daily Journal of Commerce and Briefly Legal

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As most of you can probably recall (we sure can), law school was a competitive place – and getting a not-so-perfect grade could make you feel as if you were putting your career in jeopardy.

But current law students can take heart! Even if you don’t ace every course, you too can end up on the U.S. Supreme Court.

According to , back when Elena Kagan was a law school student she earned [dramatic drum roll here….] B’s in several classes!

The Record piece goes on to list several other noted legal scholars and judges who earned a less-than-stellar grade or two during their time in law school.

DC Dicta appears courtesy of Lawyers USA, a sister publication of Briefly Legal PDX.

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