If you think the federal appointment process is slow now, just be glad the framers didn't adopt the Code of Hammurabi. According to law #5 in this rendering of the Code of Hammurabi:

If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge's bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgment.

The US Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to grant cert. in a case involving whether municipal building codes published for free on the Web are, in fact, protected by copyright from disclosure. The case involves a challenge (by the publisher of the model building code upon which the municipal code was based) to publication of the municipal code on a regional-interest Web site. The 5th Circuit essentially decided that once a model code has been enacted into law in a specific jurisdiction, the model code loses copyright protection. Read more at Sardonic Views, Chas Rich's weblog. Thanks to Ernie for the pointer.