A Classical Lesson from Football

Louisiana being itself, the judge in the state-level case is reportedly a season-ticket holder for LSU football, who appears here with the LSU coach giving the LSU football hand sign; the lawyer representing LSU had endorsed the judge's wife in her election campaign; the Louisiana Attorney General began her remarks on the case with "Geaux Tigers!"; and the ruling was compared to 'a cup of cold gumbo.'

The South collectively having been subject to many rounds of legal and judicial interference in its culture and laws, the SEC knew not even to wait for the state-court ruling before filing its own case in Federal Court so the state court can be overridden. Southern football rivalries being what they are, it filed this suit in a Federal court not in Louisiana but in Alabama. 

This is a very nice illustration of Aristotle's point in the Rhetoric about why you can't trust judges in matters of justice. 

Now, it is of great moment that well-drawn laws should themselves define all the points they possibly can and leave as few as may be to the decision of the judges; and this for several reasons. First, to find one man, or a few men, who are sensible persons and capable of legislating and administering justice is easier than to find a large number. Next, laws are made after long consideration, whereas decisions in the courts are given at short notice, which makes it hard for those who try the case to satisfy the claims of justice and expediency. The weightiest reason of all is that the decision of the lawgiver is not particular but prospective and general, whereas members of the assembly and the jury find it their duty to decide on definite cases brought before them. They will often have allowed themselves to be so much influenced by feelings of friendship or hatred or self-interest that they lose any clear vision of the truth and have their judgement obscured by considerations of personal pleasure or pain. In general, then, the judge should, we say, be allowed to decide as few things as possible. But questions as to whether something has happened or has not happened, will be or will not be, is or is not, must of necessity be left to the judge, since the lawgiver cannot foresee them.

Emphasis added.