perfidy

It's not often that the oral arguments in the US Supreme Court rise to the level of noir fiction a la James M. Cain.

Clement starts to explain that in some cases this is terrifically complicated. He tries to hypothesize a messy fraud case, but Stevens cuts him off. "Keep it simple," he says. "There are usually not a host of enhancing factors—just the drug quantity and a gun." Clement tries to return to his fraud prosecution, but again Stevens stops him: "Use the example I've given you," he hisses. With the gun.

Terrific writing from Dahlia Lithwick.