The expression “kangaroo court” came out of Texas in the 1850s.
It meant that the accused’s guilt was predetermined and that the trial was a mere formality before punishment.
Kangaroo was a Texas reference to Australia, a former British penal colony where everyone had been guilty of something.
So if a convict were accused of a new crime, there would be no doubt of his guilt.
We often call a predictable trial a “kangaroo court”.
