I heard 8-1 on NPR this morning, and they did mention Alito. This space-time continuum thing really needs to get sorted out.
Well, this thread has clarified something for me! I had wondered why some of the things going on in the world didn’t make sense. It’s now clear – I am operating in the wrong space-time continuum.
Although pitting Alito for coming to the right decision based on a slightly different technical reading of the law than the others, strikes me as strange in any STC. 
The majority decision was 8-1. Alito concurred – meaning he didn’t agree with the majority’s reasoning, although he did with the result they arrived at.
If he concurred, and nobody dissented, the decision was 9-0. Concurrences are treated as votes for the majority.
/me points and laughs
Is Superboy-Prime punching reality again?
Best thread ever.
Worst thread ever.
So it wasn’t just me. Well, wasn’t in Ben Franklin who said, “Post in haste, repent at leisure”?
So it wasn’t just me. Well, wasn’t in Ben Franklin who said, “Post in haste, repent at leisure”?
No, the result was 9-0, but the majority decision was 8-1. There’s a point beyond nitpickery to that. Every case eventually gets ruled on, with a result. But if there’s not a five-man majority for a given line of legal reasoning, it sets no precedent (or at least not a binding one).
The decision that Ellerth is entitled to collect was unanimous. How they got there was not (though it was a good solid 8-man majority).
The reason for the 24th Amendment was that in the leading SCOTUS case on poll taxes before the amendment, there was no majority. Four people felt they were constitutional (if scurrilous), four they were unconstitutional, and Justice Powell held that they were unconstitutional in Federal elections but constitutional in state ones. Hence the adoption of the amendment.
Actually (depending on whether you’re in the cool space-time continuum), what Ben said was closer to “Saturday Evening Post in haste makes waste not, want not. Lather, rinse and repent at leisure.”
- kd99, cool STC denizen
No, that would be Bay Buchanan of Team America.
I believe the correct quote is, “Double post in haste, repent at leisure.”
Whew. We can exhale now. We’ve all been holding our breath awaiting this moment. 
I heard 8-1 with Alito being the 1 on NPR, too. Can’t remember what day it was–either Tuesday or Friday (I was listening on my way to work).
They said nothing about 9-0 in the report. They also interviewed the woman (White)–but that’s all I remember.
Poly, I think we’ve got another time-space continuum thingie happening here. Amendment XXIV was adopted in 1964. President Nixon nominated Justice Powell in 1971. 
You have several for resolving this quandary:
- The “multiple worlds hypothesis” in which accurate facts from two different STCs come together to create a paradox
- Justice Powell was secretly a Time Lord and used his TARDIS to cast the deciding vote seven or more years before his appointment.
- I confused the Poll Tax decision with the 18-Year-Old Voter Decision, in which Justice Powell did cast the deciding vote in the mode I described.
- The hamsters secretly edited my post to make me look incompetent.
I rather like choice #3 myself. :o
Personally, I go by the rule that when in doubt, it’s always the fault of the hamsters!
blinks In my STC, the hamsters were choice #4…