The Quantum Mechanic

Burgoyne surrendered to Gates at Saratoga.

Great disclaimer in the insurance that NAR (no typo) offers its members:

NAR insurance does not cover any activities which involve use of alcoholic beverages, criminal assaults and batteries, nuclear accidents, or sexual abuse.

In various Kelo discussions, defenders of the atrocity like to say things like “well, after Berman and Midkiff of course it would be decided that way. There was nothing wrong with Kelo and it didn’t change anything. The ‘public use’ clause of the 5th Amendment has been read as ‘public benefit’ or as ‘whatever the legislature deems to be a public use’ for decades.”

I think this is a good example of stare decisis for stare decisis’s case and the bad things it can lead to. All it takes is one not-so-great opinion some time ago (and if “public use” in 1787 meant “whatever the government determines to be public use”, why insert the phrase into the document in the first place?). Then you have another one upholding and expanding it. Rinse, lather, repeat, and eventually you become unmoored. I think it’s a great example of the types of danger Volokh has pointed out about the slippery slope. And of the dangers of not being originalist enough.