Turning to Benjamin Britten's tragic opera "Billy Budd," the panelists were asked to consider whether the character of a ship captain might have found a way to spare the life of a sailor who was doomed to hang after being wrongfully accused of organizing a mutiny and killing his accuser out of frustration.

Accompanied by piano, a singer performed "I Accept Their Verdict," the aria sung by Captain Vere after Billy Budd is court-martialed and sentenced to death.

"Well, I think there was" a way the captain could have saved him, Ginsburg said. "He didn't have to impanel the court martial on a ship. He could have kept Billy and could have had the trial occur on British soil, but there was this tremendous fear of mutiny."

Verrilli said the captain's dilemma was not unlike those faced by many lawyers and judges.

"I sympathize with the captain in that doing your duty in order to maintain fidelity to the rule of law ... can exact a significant personal toll sometimes," he said.

Aw, pooooor Don.

The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric. They are construing our constitution from a co-ordination of a general and special government to a general and supreme one alone. This will lay all things at their feet, and they are too well versed in English law to forget the maxim, "boni judicis est ampliare juris-dictionem."  - Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Ritchie Monticello, December 25, 1820