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Abstract

This is the opener of the three-part Courting Oblivion series on the legal concept of oblivion, meaning legal forgetfulness, letting go of the past, or forgiveness, usually to predicate a second chance, a restart, or even an era of reconstruction. This Article opens the Courting Oblivion series by demonstrating how blind-deaf concepts of justice are fundamentally ignorant of the rights and powers of oblivion. The series’ second and third parts will explain more about how acts of oblivion can secure governmental legitimacy and why oblivion needs to be enacted for whistleblowers generally.

This Article defines the legal concept of oblivion that began in the United States with the Treaty of Paris 1783. Framed as a defense of Portia’s plea in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, this Article counteracts the concept of deaf justice proposed by Daniel Kahneman, Cass R. Sunstein, and Olivier Siboney’s book Noise and the concept of blind justice asserted in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard College. This Article illustrates new concepts, like reverse-gaslighting, and mines Kesha’s recent settlement with Dr. Luke for useful material to contest blind-deaf concepts of justice that almost overcame her right to move on in California and New York.

Furthermore, the Article explains current judicial crises that indicate a strong need for judicial reform that can be spearheaded by an act of oblivion. Specifically, it addresses the possible demise of stare decisis through ad hoc Janus v. AFSCME balancing tests after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. It also addresses the emergence of the shadow docket in Wheaton College v. Burwell and Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson.

The U.S. Supreme Court seems, at best, unwilling to resolve these issues on its own. Therefore, several of these judicial crises will need to be resolved, if at all, by Congress through judicial reform. As such, this Article concludes with the suggestion that Congress pass an act of oblivion that, in part, repeals and preempts all blind-deaf concepts of justice throughout the United States. This suggestion foreshadows the next two parts of the Courting Oblivion series, which will exhaustively explain the ideal uses and provisions of a prospective act of oblivion.

At some point, everybody needs a chance to move on, to let go of the past, and to have a fresh start. The right to move on is both held individually and severally by the people as a whole. This series is dedicated to the rights of the people individually and severally to move on, to heal, and to be reborn.

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