To judge or not to judge

The brewing of a horrid smelling broth.  

Chris Hall writing at CBCNews:
.....It marked the first time that a prime minister appointed a judge for one of the three Quebec seats on the Supreme Court who was not a superior court judge in the province, or an active member of the Quebec bar.

Within weeks Nadon's qualifications were challenged, first by Toronto lawyer Rocco Galati and then by Pauline Marois's Parti Quebecois government.

Harper then upped the legal ante, by formally referring the case to the Supreme Court and by introducing an amendment to the Supreme Court Act to change the rules should the high court find Nadon doesn't meet the existing criteria.

As a tactical decision, this was a doozy. In effect, Harper asked the Supreme Court for its opinion while serving notice that he would change the rules if he didn't like the answer.

Galati, who stated his case at the January hearing, accused the Conservatives of trying to stack the court with ''judges who are more friendly to their point of view.''

Other legal experts were somewhat more circumspect.

"No matter what is decided Friday this is a very sad chapter for the Supreme Court,'' says University of Ottawa law professor Carissima Mathen. "It puts the court in the difficult position of having to decide the qualifications of one of its own.''.......