We have another adverse possession case here in Boulder. Who knew this went on so much. So now we have a case between the Salims and the Marshalls. So how do they handle this? Yes they are taking the go to court route. But now we also have, via letters to the editor, both parties appealing to the populace here in Boulder to support their side.
We are a nation of laws. And for very good reason. Do you want every civil case decided by who can attract more people to their block party? Do you want what you own to be at the whim of the crowd? That is not Democracy, that's populism run amok.
When something as egregious as the McLean/Stevens issue happens then public indignation is appropriate. Because that indignation led to the law being reviewed. And in that review, the law was improved. Equally important, the legislature took a careful view of what was the best law, they did not viscerally react to the specific case. So the law was truly improved.
But equally important, the law moves forward in determining how the law should best be applied in each case. Not who had more people at their block party, but the application of the law.
At the same time we need to differentiate between what is illegal and what is immoral. The law can address what is illegal. The law cannot address what is legal, but immoral.
And we absolutely should not be stepping up to throw competing block parties every time two neighbors get into a civil lawsuit. The legal system exists for that very purpose - to take a careful dispassionate look and make a determination on the law, and nothing but the law.
Two of the greatest figures in our law, Justice Holmes and Judge Learned Hand, had lunch together and afterward, as Holmes began to drive off in his carriage, Hand, in a sudden onset of enthusiasm, ran after him, crying, "Do justice, sir, do justice." Holmes stopped the carriage and reproved Hand: "That is not my job. It is my job to apply the law."
