00:00Just because it's legalese doesn't mean it has to be stiff.
00:04That was a case Thursday when Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dropped the phrase Calvin Ball into her dissent in an emergency ruling that favored the Trump administration.
00:14Calvin Ball, from the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, is a character Calvin's made-up game with ever-changing rules.
00:21Jackson was writing in opposition to a majority opinion that allowed the Trump administration to cancel almost $800 million in funding for research grants linked to the DEI initiatives.
00:36The court has issued an unprecedented number of similar emergency rulings this year, almost all of them going President Donald Trump's way.
00:44The five-justice majority did not explain its decision.
00:47Jackson wrote, quote, This is Calvin Ball jurisprudence with a twist.
00:52Calvin Ball has only one rule. There are no fixed rules.
00:56We seem to have two. That one, and this administration, always wins.
01:01She went on to cite the Oxford Dictionary's definition of Calvin Ball, activity reminiscent of the imaginary game of Calvin Ball,
01:09and not following any discernible rules or in which individuals act in a self-servingly inconsistent manner.
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