The Supreme Court and Comic Books

In which the Justices quote Spiderman:

What we can decide, we can undecide. But stare decisis teaches that we should exercise that authority sparingly.  Cf. S. Lee and S. Ditko, Amazing Fantasy No. 15: “Spider-Man,” p. 13 (1962) (“[I]n this world, with great power there must also come—great responsibility”). Finding many reasons for staying the stare decisis course and no “special justification” for departing from it, we decline Kimble’s invitation to overrule Brulotte.

Kagan, J., for the Court (in Kimble, et al., v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC, decided June 21, 2015).

Bazinga! (to quote Sheldon Cooper)

Tip of the beret to Jack of Kent.

Update: see also discussion of Justice Kagan's Spiderman jokes here, by Matthew Yglesias (Vox).

The X-Men and the Civil Rights Movement

Gregory Scott Parks, Wake Forest University School of Law, has published 'A Choice of Weapons': The X-Men and the Metaphor of Black Power versus Integrationism. Here is the abstract.

During the 20th Century, the competing ideals and methodologies of the Integrationist and Black Power movements took center stage in African American's quest for social justice and racial equality. There has long been an assumption that the Civil Rights Movement and appeals for integration and to the moral character of whites lead to sweeping social change around issues of race in America. The counter-narrative is that demands for black power forced the hand of the white power structure, that there would be no civil rights without the threat of black power. In his comic book, The X-Men, Stan Lee has taken up this metaphor over the course of several decades. In this work, the author explores this metaphor in an attempt to answer the question: which approach got it right--Magneto or Professor Xavier, Black Power or Integrationism?

Download the paper from SSRN at the link.