Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is the most sarcastic jurist on the nation's high court, according to one California university law professor.
University of California Irvine professor Richard Hasen's system give Scalia a 2.78 on the so-called Sarcastic Index, followed by Samuel Alito, who posted a 0.43. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Sonia Sotomayor "did not even register,"
The New York Times reports.
According to The Times, Hasen's methodology – " clever but not airtight" — looked over assessments of high court opinions in law review articles from 1986, when Scalia joined the court, through the end of 2013.
"There were 134 opinions described as sarcastic or caustic, and Justice Scalia wrote 75 of them, more than all the other justices combined," the Times reports. "The index took that number and divided it by the number of years the justice has served."
The Times, warns "his sarcasm may be his most enduring legacy."
In 2013, four authors, including three professors, also took on the
subject of humor in a study titled "Too Much Frivolity, Not Enough Femininity: A Study of Gender and Humor at the U.S. Supreme Court," finding "the Supreme Court is far funnier than previously thought, and that Justice Scalia enjoys bullying Justice [Stephen] Breyer."
The UC Irvine index came in for some skewering.
"This isn't the first time that a political scientist has tried to objectively measure how funny Antonin Scalia is, but for the love of John Marshall, please let it be the last,"
Mediaite writes.
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