When a court issues a decision, the judge writes an opinion in which he explains his reasoning. He grounds the decision in law, precedent, common sense, and principles that he feels obliged to articulate and defend. This is what transforms the decision from mere fiat into something that is politically legitimate, capable of securing the assent of a free people.
This is not true. What matters is whether the judge has applied laws passed by the elected representatives of the people. Courts have sometimes tried to defy the Legislature but, speaking generally, they have had to back down.
Judges make determinations of law. Juries make determinations of fact though defendants may waive their right to a jury trial. Judgments are defeasible. An autocracy may have a protocol bound judicial system while a Democracy may not. It is not the case that 'political legitimacy' arises from the fact that 'judges write opinions in which they explain their reasoning'. There would have been no American or Indian Freedom Struggle if this were the case.
It makes the difference between simple power and authority.
No. A foreign power occupying the country may have simple power. It may employ excellent judges. It may be very careful to follow local precedents and 'common sense'. Yet, the people may feel it has no authority. Consider the Sinn Fein Courts set up while Ireland was still under British rule. They had no power, but they did have authority as far as Irish patriots were concerned.
One distinguishing feature of a modern, liberal society is that authority is supposed to have this rational quality to it — rather than appealing to, say, a special talent for priestly divination.
This is not the case. We expect our Chief Executive to have some more than rational quality. After all, the rational thing to do may be to surrender unconditional if threatened by nuclear annihilation.
In America there is 'deliberative process privilege'- i.e the common law principle that internal processes of the executive branch of a government are immune from normal disclosure or discovery in civil litigations, Freedom of Information Act requests, etc
This is our Enlightenment inheritance.
What Crawford has inherited is stupidity and ignorance. He isn't a lawyer. He has a PhD in political philosophy- i.e. is as stupid as shit. The fact is the Law endows immunities and privileges against having to explain one's reasons for actions one is entitled to perform.
It appears to be in a fragile state.
It is a fiction of a cretin's imagination.
With the inscrutable arcana of data science, a new priesthood peers into a hidden layer of reality that is revealed only by a self-taught AI program — the logic of which is beyond human knowing.
Just as the logic behind our own decisions is beyond our knowledge. A psychoanalyst or behavioral economist may be better able to explain why we do what we do then we can ourselves.
The feeling that one is ruled by a class of experts who cannot be addressed,
like the feeling that one is being anally probed by Extra Terrestrials
who cannot be held to account, has surely contributed to populist anger.
especially against the wealthy celebrities who are using the Post Office as a cover for a pedophile ring
From the perspective of ordinary citizens, the usual distinction between government and “the private sector” starts to sound like a joke,
because everybody knows that shape shifting Lizard people have established sectors in our private parts- also they have fitted cameras in toilet bowls to watch you poop. This is no laughing matter.
given how the tech firms order our lives in far-reaching ways.
while watching us poop
Democracy doesn't mean transparency whereas autocracy may stipulate for it. Accountability can become a curse because antagonomic cretins may make a nuisance of themselves by incessantly demanding it.
Should 'Big Tech' be curbed? Stupidity of all types- and wasteful competition between imbeciles is stupid- should certainly be curbed. But listening to guys with PhDs in 'Political Science' is a greater stupidity yet.
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