Judge of the Day

Epic Footnote Proves Judges Are Real People

Harry Potter, college football, and 420 [cough] come together for a most excellent judicial footnote.

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Judges! They’re just like us!

They make nerdy references to The Boy Who Lived. They know college football. They can even make sly marijuana references. Associate Chief Justice Thomas Rex Lee of the Utah Supreme Court was able to combine all these elements to create a fun-filled footnote — either that or he hires great law clerks, but it’s one or the other.

This case involves a dispute between a driver and the Utah Department of Transportation. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice it to say knowing the exact location of the incident along the highway becomes relevant. The briefs refer to the location as “near mile marker 46.5,” as opposed to referring to the location by the nearest whole mile, i.e., “near mile marker 46.” Not content to merely note this incongruity, Justice Lee has a bit of fun with the litigants. (Emphasis ours.)

The briefs identify this area a bit differently. They refer to it as “near mile marker 46.5.” We are unsure of what to make of that formulation, as we suppose that a “mile marker” is in fact a mile marker and not a half-mile marker, and see no indication in the record or elsewhere that UDOT uses half-mile markers. But we note this discrepancy anyway. We do so in case there literally is a “mile marker 46.5” on SR–35. Cf. J.K. ROWLING, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’ STONE 89–90 (1998) (noting Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia’s disbelief in the notion of a Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross Station); John Ingold, Colorado Hopes a Mile 419.99 Sign on Interstate 70 Thwarts Stoners, DENVER POST (Jan. 10, 2014), http://www.denverpost.com/ne ws/ci_24889289/colorado–hopes–mile–419–99–sign–interstate–70 (noting the replacement of mile marker 420 on I–70 with marker 419.99; noting that the number 420 is “[i]n sports terms,” the “‘Roll Tide’ of weed,” and explaining that marker 420 repeatedly had been stolen by “marijuana enthusiasts”) (Only in Colorado. Or so we assume.).

Well played sir, well played.

(Read the full opinion on the next page.)

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