Laughing at the SEC

January 8th, 2013

Today’s arguments in Gabelli v. SEC were quite humorous, as Justices Scalia and Breyer did their standup schtick.

When Justice Breyer asks someone to prove him wrong, he knows they can’t:

All right. Now, you will tell me that I’m wrong by citing some cases that show I’m wrong. And that’s what I’m asking. I want to be told I’m wrong, sort of.

(Laughter.)

MR. WALL: And I guess what I want to tell you is there aren’t cases out there one way or the other. There aren’t cases endorsing or declining to adopt the discovery rule in the context of fraud or concealment with civil penalty actions —

JUSTICE SCALIA: You’d expect that – you’d expect there to be some cases in a couple of hundred years.

JUSTICE BREYER: No, I haven’t found one.

JUSTICE SCALIA: Fraud is nothing new, for Pete’s sake.

This is the SCOTUS equivalent of a humble brag.

This exchange, with my former FedCourts Prof, and current Assistant SG Jeff Wall, was perfectly timed:

JUSTICE SCALIA: And you will say nonsense in that future case, won’t you?

(Laughter.)

MR. WALL: That’s — I’ll be as right then as I am now. (Laughter.)

lol.