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http://www.leagle.com/decision/19471007159F2d848_1759

He quoted from the dissent in Commissioner v. Newman. He found a single judge who wrote an opinion at one point in American history that fit his mindset. An opinion to which that judge's peers disagreed. Selective quoting if I've ever seen it. I didn't think I needed a quote considering the decision itself is entirely written in opposition of the dissent.

Your inability to differentiate between legal and moral has been sufficiently addressed by other posts.

Have an example of a company acting legally, yet immorally: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott



Again, as if a dissenting judge's reasoning has no merit.

I'll take note that in the future one has to provide numerous quotes to avoid being labeled as selective quoting. Even though you provided one quote to counter his one "selective" quote. I don't necessarily disagree with what you state in that context, I simply disagree with the selective quoting label.

I was trying to point out that the majority opinion was not really relevant to the point because it was not decided on morality, but on not following the law. Therefore, a quote from the dissenting judge that was relevant to the topic at hand, i.e. whether it is moral or not to reduce one's tax liabilities, was fair. Using the majority opinion to counter the poster's point is not fair because the opinion is not relevant to the point.

I shall attempt to provide an example. Let's say there's a court case about the legalities of puppy mills. The majority opinion is that they are illegal. In the dissent there's a statement concerning the desire for a certain breed and that's why the defendants ran a puppy mill. I quote the dissenting judge about people's desire of that certain breed, not mentioning puppy mills. You state my use of the quote is not valid because the majority decided that puppy mills are illegal. That's all I'm saying.

Finally, I know that the law should have nothing to do with morals. Morals are subjective and attempts to legislate morals almost always results in unintended consequences. I simply disagree with judging a company by moral standards based on their actions under the law. As for other posters, I think there the opinions all over the board about what people feel on moral/legal activities in their own worldview. Which is why I think that judging morality on legal matters is not always a good idea.




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