kangaroo court

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kangaroo court

An unofficial court or a court that disregards current laws and conducts unfair trials. People who live under oppressive regimes are often treated harshly by corrupt kangaroo courts that don't abide by the law.

See also: court, kangaroo

kangaroo court

a bogus or illegal court. Is this a staff meeting or a kangaroo court? You have turned this interview into a kangaroo court.

See also: court, kangaroo

kangaroo court

A self-appointed tribunal that violates established legal procedure; also, a dishonest or incompetent court of law. For example, The rebels set up a kangaroo court and condemned the prisoners to summary execution, or That judge runs a kangaroo court-he tells rape victims they should have been more careful . This expression is thought to liken the jumping ability of kangaroos to a court that jumps to conclusions on an invalid basis. [Mid-1800s]

See also: court, kangaroo

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

a kangaroo court

A kangaroo court is a court that is created quickly and is not official, and often not fair. All kinds of strange people appeared to testify in the kangaroo court which the newspapers had set up. I've been shot at, beaten up my military police, and sentenced to life imprisonment by a kangaroo court.

See also: court, kangaroo

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

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References in periodicals archive ?

Have kangaroo courts taken upon themselves the role of moral policing?

A Larger Malaise

The term "kangaroo court" has two separate but allied meanings.

Dropping the K-bomb: a compendium of kangaroo tales from American judicial opinions

In a letter, Sir Philip said: "Even before the parliamentary inquiry started hearing from witnesses, you turned it into little more than a kangaroo court, with your constant press campaign barracking and insulting me and my family and your announcement from day one that the predetermined result of the inquiry was that I either sign a large cheque or lose my knighthood.

Green should 'face up to evil he has done' - MP

Defence lawyers say he runs a kangaroo court where prisoners have no chance to put their case.

180 Egypt rebels are sent to gallows

The victim's family members delayed in lodging complaint till Monday following direction of a kangaroo court that threatened to throw them out of the village if they dared to do so.

Tribal girl raped by classmates

HULL boss Steve Bruce has accused the Football Association of allowing George Boyd to be tried by a "kangaroo court" after his three-match ban for spitting was rejected by an independent disciplinary panel this week.

Bruce blasts Boyd's kangaroo court

Lord Ahmed claimed that he is 'very disappointed' at the way his party has handled matters, adding that he does not want to 'appear before any kangaroo court where the rules of justice had been denied'.

Controversial Labour peer quits from party ahead of hearing on 'Jewish conspiracy'

It would appear to me that the CUG is little better than a kangaroo court that dishonours the essentials principles of natural justice.

Arbitrary and capricious; LETTERS

"There is no justice in the appeal (process) - it is a kangaroo court."

Tel makes U-turn on SFA appeal

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is furious after a senior official was sacked following a hearing at a "kangaroo court".

FIREFIGHTERS TO VOTE OVER STRIKE; Crews fuming over dismissal of colleague

As Keeper of the Merseyside Maritime Museum, I was obliged (until 2003) to attend the Maritime Friends' committee meetings - it was like a kangaroo court. Never any praise, just constant criticism.

Letter: Constant criticism

Estrada, who called the verdict "a political deci-sion" by "a kangaroo court," also was ordered to forfeit a mansion and more than pounds 7.8 million, plus interest, that was deposited into two bank accounts.

Life for deposed Filipino president; INTERNATIONAL

After his capture Saddam was "tried" by a US-appointed kangaroo court and sentenced to death.

Letter: Saddam pictures repellent

In the midst of these outrageous kangaroo court proceedings, the Cuban regime decided to go further and summarily execute three "terrorist" hijackers.

Castro's crackdown: while U.S. forces battled Saddam's regime, a brave band of brothers stood against the terror and oppression of a brutal tyrant 90 miles from our shore. (Cuba)

Sounds like some ludicrous Stalinist-era kangaroo court, but it's right here in the good ol' U.S.A.