"Judgment improves when dissent is safe but costly.
When the stakes rise, standards are what keep judgment from turning into vibes and hierarchy. In a standard that is clear on paper but fuzzy under pressure, the goal is not rigidity; it is clarity about the bar.
In a standard that is clear on paper but fuzzy under pressure, a quiet “just this once” becomes precedent. The damage is not one exception; it is the loss of clarity about the bar and who can change it. If you introduce a measure, name the distortion it creates, because the distortion is part of the cost you are choosing.
Cass R. Sunstein is useful here because it forces precision. Re-state the standard as a yes/no check and make the exception path explicit and narrow. A clear line beats a long explanation.