It is the attempt to DROP reality as a standard of judgment.

FORBES: Tactics And Antidotes In Washington's War Of Words

We recognize that the Senate has chosen in the Claiborne proceedings and elsewhere not to impose its -- on itself any single standard of proof, but rather to leave that judgment to the conscience of the individual senator.

CNN: Transcript: White House Counsel Ruff's opening statement

That judgment, the biggest change in the standard for admissibility of scientific evidence in the federal court system for 70 years, was initially used in civil cases.

ECONOMIST: Whose body of evidence? | The