Non-judge, jury, and executioner

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's denial of Tom Brady's appeal from his Deflategate suspension might never become a regular topic of study in our nation's law schools.  And whether Tom Brady takes the Patriots' first snap this season won't affect the legal system, apart from Boston lawyers holding tickets to those first few Patriots games.

But the Deflategate decision, with its talk of witness tampering and evidence destruction, does raise important questions about how non-judicial decisionmakers resolve issues normally decided by courts. These decisions can have life-altering consequences:  whether people, like Brady, are allowed to work; whether they can attend college; even what they can say.  Yet these decisions are often made without the due process guarantees or impartiality found in a court of law.