kangaroo court

Language: en

Meaning: (originallyUS,idiomatic)Ajudicialorquasi-judicialproceeding, or agroupofpeoplewhichconductssuch proceedings, which is withoutproperauthority, and oftenactsabusivelyordecidesunjustly.[from mid 19th c.]1841August 24, “Don’t comprehend”, in C. M. Price, G. R. Fall, editors,The Daily Picayune, volume V, number179, New Orleans, La.: Lumsden, Kendall & Co.,→OCLC,page 2, column 5:The Concordia Intelligencer says "several loafers were lynched in Natchez last week upon various charges instituted by theKangaroo court.[…]" What is aKangaroo court, neighbor?1848December 1, W. P. Andrews, “[Letter to the editors]”, inThe Mississippian, volume XVIII, number 3, Jackson, Miss.:[G. R. Fall and J. Marshall], published12 January 1849,→OCLC,page 3, column 2:On the evening succeeding the election, a meeting was gotten up some what in imitation of a "Kangaroo Court," for the purpose oftrying three individuals,[…]1853, Philip Paxton[pseudonym], “Term Time in the Backwoods, and a Mestang Court”, inA Stray Yankee in Texas, New York, N.Y.: Redfield,[…],→OCLC,page205:One of the principal amusements of the bar during these sessions of the court, is to assemble in some sufficiently capacious room, and after indulging in all the boyish games that occur to them, to institute mock proceedings against some one of their number, for some ridiculous, imaginary offence.[…]By an unanimous vote, Judge G.—the fattest and funniest of the assembly—was elected to the bench, and the "Mestang" [i.e., mustang] or "Kangaroo Court" regularly organized.1856, Charles Summerfield[pseudonym; Alfred W. Arrington], “The Trial—An Execution”, inThe Rangers and Regulators of the Tanaha: Or, Life among the Lawless. A Tale of the Republic of Texas, New York: Robert M. De Witt,[…],→OCLC,page247:Sol Tuttle interposed; "Don't you let nobody hev any witnesses i[n] thiskangaroo court?"1858July 14, Theodoric F. Sorrells, “To the Voters of the Second Judicial Circuit[letter]”, in C. C. Danley, editor,Arkansas State Gazette and Democrat, volume XXXIX, number 24 (Gazette); volume XIII, number 3 (Democrat), Little Rock, Ark.: W. F. Holtzmann,→OCLC,page 3, column 3:He [Judge Murray] endeavors to place me in the position of having assailed him, by describing the courts held by him asKangaroo courts, and imputes to me a settled purpose to alienate all social andfriendlyrelations, between the bench, bar, officers of the court, and all others, who come in direct contact with the courts. Now, all this is simply untrue, as well as ridiculous.1893March 10, “Scotch verdict”, in M[arshall]M. Murdock, editor,The Wichita Eagle, volume XXI, number52, Wichita, Kan.:[M. M. Murdock],→ISSN,→OCLC,page 6, column 7:[A]bout twenty prisoners were confined in the city prison at the time and were all more or less drunk on white line (alcohol) furnished through the window by outside parties;[…]twokangaroo courtswere held the day on which Varnoff was convicted of violating the prison rules, was fined 50 cents each time and searched by officers of the court.1933April 10, “The New Pictures:MbyFritz Lang”, inTime‎[2], New York, N.Y.:Time Inc.,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe originalon15 April 2016:They take him off to face theirkangaroo courtin the cellar of a deserted brewery.1951April 23,William O[rville] Douglas,Associate Justice,Supreme Court of the United States, “Williams v. United States”, inLegal Information Institute,Cornell Law School(341 U.S. 97, 71 S. Ct. 576, 95 L. Ed. 774)‎[3], archived fromthe originalon29 August 2022, paragraph 8:[W]here police take matters in their own hands, seize victims, beat and pound them until they confess, there cannot be the slightest doubt that the police have deprived the victim of a right under the Constitution. It is the right of the accused to be tried by a legally constituted court, not by akangaroo court.2003December, David Glazier, “Kangaroo Court or Competent Tribunal?: Judging the 21st Century Military Commission”, inVirginia Law Review‎[4], volume89, number 8, Charlottesville, Va.: Virginia Law Review Association,→DOI,→ISSN,→OCLC, page2093:A military commission trial falling short of the full UCMJ standard is all but certain to be pejoratively judged as a "kangaroo court" in the court of public opinion.

Examples:

EN: What is this, a kangaroo court?
ES: ¿Pero que es esto?
EN: Sometimes they dope 'em up and run them through some kind of kangaroo court.
ES: Unas veces les administran drogas para interrogarles.
EN: And then we might as well set up some kind of a kangaroo court.
ES: Y así improvisamos una especie de juzgado vecinal.
EN: I listen to the whisperings of those other poor benighted creatures waiting to be railroaded by your kangaroo court.
ES: He recopilado información acerca de cómo llegó a ser el sheriff de Cedar County.
EN: And the kangaroo court.
ES: Y sobre el tribunal sin autorización.
EN: This is a court, a kangaroo court... as the headlines could scream.
ES: Esto es un tribunal, un tribunal itinerante... como podrían proclamar los titulares.
EN: This is no kangaroo court. We simply want the facts.
ES: Esto no es un juicio rápido, sólo queremos los hechos.
EN: You mean kangaroo court!
ES: Querrá decir un tribunal arbitrario!
EN: You're a kangaroo court.
ES: Eres una corte canguro.
EN: I'm a professional for hire. This little kangaroo court of yours is gonna cost you an extra 10 grand.
ES: Este pequeño tribunal le costará 10 000 dólares más.
ES: Este pequeño tribunal le costará 10000 dólares más.
EN: Try kangaroo court.
ES: Prueba la cancha canguro.
EN: Sentenced to death by an instant kangaroo court, they will be summarily executed.
ES: Condenados a muerte por un rápido tribunal falso, ellos serán sumariamente ejecutados.
EN: This is nothing more than a kangaroo court without the hoppy, furry guy.
ES: Esto no es más que la corte del canguro sin el tipo peludo y saltarín.
ES: Esto no es más que la corte del canguro sin el tipo peludo y saltarín.
EN: This hearing's nothing but a kangaroo court.
ES: Esta audiencia es un tribunal ilegítimo.
EN: After we finish with him, tomorrow we go after the rest of his kangaroo court.
ES: Y después de que terminemos con él, mañana perseguimos el resto de su tribunal de canguros.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).

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