court-ridden

English

Etymology

From court +‎ ridden.

Adjective

court-ridden (comparative more court-ridden, superlative most court-ridden)

1. Dominated or overly influenced by the (royal) court.
   • 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Henry Esmond‎^[1], London: Smith, Elder & Co., Volume I, Book 1, p. 26:

     I wonder shall History ever pull off her periwig and cease to be court-ridden? Shall we see something of France and England besides Versailles and Windsor?

   • 1895 March 16, Jerome K. Jerome, editor, To-Day‎^[2], page 178:

     The stage censorship in this age is a deliberate and wanton insult to the British public, and one which, if they had the slightest spirit in them and were not—as far as the majority of the theatrical public goes—a body of court-ridden snobs, they would sweep away in a moment. Her Majesty may be the most excellent lady in the land, but I have as much objection to her dictating to me what plays I shall listen to and what plays I am not to hear as I have to our prudes regulating my literature.

   • 1941, Walter Phelps Hall, William Stearns Davis, chapter 22, in The Course of Europe Since Waterloo‎^[3], 3rd edition, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, published 1951, page 445:

     Francis Joseph […] had discovered that under the Constitution of 1867 he could exercise greater actual power over his dominions than his Prussian “brother,” at Potsdam or, in a merely personal sense, than his other pliable and court-ridden “brother” at the St. Petersburg Winter Palace.

2. Dominated or overly influenced by the judiciary.
   • 1917, William Renwick Riddell, The Constitution of Canada in its History and Practical Working‎^[4], New Haven: Yale University Press, Lecture IV, pp. 147-148:

     So a Canadian who did not happen to know better might exclaim, Why, what’s the use of a Senate and House of Representatives or House of Assembly, when their hands are tied by the letter which killeth, when they cannot even “boss” a court? What kind of a country is it where no matter how offensive and discreditable a government may be, you cannot get rid of it till a time fixed beyond control? What a paper-governed, court-ridden country!

   • 1936, “Labor Laws Await Supreme Court Test,” The Lather, Cleveland, Ohio: Wood, Wire and Metal Lathers’ International Union, Volume 34, No. 2, October 1936, p. 7.^[5]

     The United States of America is the most court ridden country in the world. ¶ Every federal court assumes the right and authority to declare any act of congress unconstitutional. In no other country do the courts presume to override national legislature.