Just look at how a sharp public slap provoked Justice Alito, threw a spotlight on the court's dubious jurisprudence and sparked an embarrassing over-the-top hissy fit on the right.
We will escalate and we will provoke until justice is achieved for the countless victims of rampant sexual violence at this University and around the nation".
Because they understand the watershed moment the outcome will provoke, the justices dig through the details and come up with a technicality to produce a ruling that will change everything and nothing.
The court's majority has been expanding the states' immunity from the reach of federal law for some time, and their latest such move provoked four justices into signing an unusual dissenting opinion in which they made clear that they were not simply disagreeing with the decision at hand.
Whether it's controversial policing tactics or public outcry at the sentences handed out to high profile offenders – crime and justice provoke passionate debates.
In another exchange that provoked laughter, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, recognizing the justices' penchant for interruption, made one lawyer an unusual offer by allowing him an extra two minutes to talk.
The jury took only 20 minutes to convict, but was this a crime of passion or, as some have since claimed, a miscarriage of justice provoked by intemperate reporting?
His efforts to put off the issue provoked his colleagues, with Justice Blackmun perhaps the harshest critic.
Senator Jeff Sessions, 69, was named by Trump as nominee to lead the justice department, provoking immediate outrage from Democrats and civil rights groups.
Oddly, today's justice-seekers provoke none of the controversy of their predecessors despite being infinitely more worthy of Kael's reproach.
