Politics dictionary
Calvinball jurisprudence
[kal-vin-bawl joor-is-proo-duhns]
What does Calvinball jurisprudence mean?
Calvinball jurisprudence is a term used to describe judicial decision-making in which the rules appear inconsistent, improvised, or subject to change depending on the case. The phrase suggests that courts are playing by shifting standards rather than by precedent.
In 2025, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson used the term in reference to the Court’s decisions, which she described as adapting rules in real time in such a way that “[the Trump] Administration always wins.”
Where does Calvinball jurisprudence come from?
Calvinball jurisprudence is a reference to a game called “Calvinball” depicted in Bill Watterson’s comic strip Calvin and Hobbes (1985–1995), in which there are no fixed rules except that the same rule can never repeat across games. The metaphor has been adopted in legal and political commentary to describe situations where judicial reasoning (jurisprudence) seems unpredictable or applied unevenly.
In a dissenting court opinion in August 2025, Justice Jackson stated that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority is engaging in “Calvinball jurisprudence with a twist,” evolving rules to fit their agenda. Her remarks came as a response to the administration’s intention to cut research grants for the National Institutes of Health.
Examples of Calvinball jurisprudence
Who uses Calvinball jurisprudence?
Although Jackson’s dissent in 2025 stands out as a notable written use of the specific term Calvinball jurisprudence, the term Calvinball has circulated in academic and legal commentary for years, including in Supreme Court proceedings. In 2023 arguments surrounding social media platform regulations, J. Benjamin Aguiñaga, Solicitor General for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, accused the Biden administration of “playing total Calvinball…to get the platforms to censor more speech.”
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of Calvinball jurisprudence like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of Calvinball jurisprudence that will help our users expand their word mastery.
