A point I didn’t get to make in today’s column about Kennedy and the Supreme Court’s habit of heading foreign courts: in the next confirmation battle for the Court I would rather hear conservative Senators grill nominees on this point than on virtually any other. Because if you think rulings from European Courts, India, Zimbabwe and Jamaica can justify an opinion, you basically believe that your opinions need no justification whatsoever. If the whole world is a source of precedent, than the world is Felix the Cat’s magic bag and justices can yank whatever they need from the global lexis-nexis. This, it seems to me, is a worthwhile litmus test. It is not geared to a specific policy, but rather a judicial temperament and understanding of our own constitution’s primacy and exclusive authority over the United States and its laws. To me there’s no difference in citing science fiction and citing the laws of Jamaica when it comes to their respective relevance to what our constitution requires.