What does phrases “Deserve an asterisk” and “Putting an asterisk” besides someone's name, means morally and in lawman's terms? [closed]

Question

I got to see this amazing web-series called "Suits", I just wonder is there an actual legal proceeding called "putting an asterisk" besides some lawman's name ? If there is what would it mean in Law & Constitutional terms and what it would mean, looking from general and moral perspective ?

Now I know that everything they have shown in "Suits" might not be true and somethings are ought to be exaggerating and false but if they have mentioned this terms repeatedly and with emphasis then I don't think this could be entirely false and irrelevant with the Legal Processes.

I googled it and couldn't find any relevant info on this pertaining to Law...

So could anyone help me understand this concept in detail, as I said, from the perspective of Law and moral side of it ?

Answer 1

Especially in the context of the era that Suits is set in, I think the best answer is related to the home run record achieved by Roger Maris in the 1961 baseball season. The previous record was set by the legendary Babe Ruth in 1927, and many fans were reluctant to see the record overturned. After Maris beat the old record, a myth arose that the official baseball records contain an asterisk, as if to imply that technically Maris beat the record but he didn't really deserve to.

According to the Village Voice it isn't really an asterisk, it's a notation that it was a 162 game season; when Ruth played the season was only 154 games long.

The bottom line is that an asterisk next to an award implies the award wasn't fully deserved.

Notice of potential bias: I watched in person as Roger Maris hit a home run.

Answer 2

"Putting an asterisk next to one's name" is not a legal term at all.

As Gerard Ashton explains, the phrase comes from the Roger Maris controversy and now refers to the idea of some kind of pejorative notation about a person, typically that he is being listed as having achieved some kind of accomplishment, but only in some qualified way.

The Suits episode explicitly invokes the Maris controversy, saying that a baseball player deserves an asterisk like Maris. That turns into a gag about putting an asterisk next to the lawyers' names, presumably through the local bar association's disciplinary process.

There is no proceeding, formal or informal, that is broadly referred to using this term.