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A Supreme Court Justice Just Name Dropped Kim Kardashian During Oral Arguments

Rachel StockmanOct 4th, 2016, 7:09 pm
 

shutterstock_327220835If you ever thought that U.S. Supreme Court Justices only read legal briefs and The National Law Journal, boy are you wrong!   Apparently, Justice Stephen Breyer has also been closely following the story of Kim Kardashian’s horrifying $10 million robbery. During Court on Tuesday, Breyer made mention of the news story in the midst of oral arguments in the case of a man convicted of attempted bank fraud. The public defender in that case, Koren Bell, insisted to the Justices that under the federal bank fraud law there is a requirement of intent to impose a financial loss on the bank itself. Justice Breyer didn’t agree.

Amy Howe at scotusblog.com explained what happened next:

But the justices were immediately skeptical of this argument. Justice Stephen Breyer (displaying an impressive knowledge of both pop culture and current events) asked Bell to address the plight of reality star Kim Kardashian, who was recently robbed of millions of dollars of jewelry in a Paris apartment. If all of Kardashian’s jewelry is insured (or, Breyer suggested, even over-insured), so that she won’t actually lose any money from the robbery, is it really theft? Or, Breyer continued, if a jewelry cleaner comes to Kardashian’s door and cons her into giving him the jewelry, and he believes it doesn’t belong to her but is instead on loan, isn’t that still fraud? Breyer clearly believed that the answer in both cases was yes.

In case you don’t believe us and want to see the actual transcript. Here you go:

And you know you’ve made it as a Supreme Court Justice, if your comments are featured on TMZ. A dream of every justice.

Yup, this all happened.  Not your usual day covering the U.S. Supreme Court.

[image Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com]

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Rachel Stockman is President of Law&Crime which includes Law&Crime Productions, Law&Crime Network and LawAndCrime.com. Under her watch, the company has grown from just a handful of people to a robust production company and network producing dozens of true crime shows a year in partnership with major networks. She also currently serves as Executive Producer of Court Cam, a hit show on A&E, and I Survived a Crime, a new crime show premiering on A&E this fall. She also oversees production of a new daily syndicated show Law&Crime Daily, which is produced in conjunction with Litton Entertainment. In addition to these shows, her network and production company produce programs for Facebook Watch, Cineflix and others. She has spent years covering courts and legal issues, and was named Atlanta Press Club's 'Rising Star' in 2014. Rachel graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and Yale Law School.

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