Dahlia Lithwick compiles a list of the ten worst civil liberties outrages of the past year, which turns out to consist entirely, with not a single exception, of Bush Administration policies relating to the War on Terror. #10 on the list, for example, is federal prosecutors' decision to seek the death penalty for enthusiastic Al Qaeda plot participant Zacharias Moussaoui. That counts as a more serious menace to civil liberties, in Lithwick's view, than any prosecutions of the

Point of Law, a website I run sponsored by the Manhattan Institute and American Enterprise Institute, is currently in its fourth day of a roundtable discussion of the upcoming election and its implications for law (especially the environment for litigation). Among the topics that have come up so far: the implications of likely Democratic gains for judicial nominations and liability reform, this year's crop of ballot measures, the politically charmed life of state attorneys ge

Nearly four years after leaving the presidency of the University of Michigan, Lee C. Bollinger is again under fire from critics of its race-

...and they're critical of the alarmism of the Senate Democrats and N.Y. Times editorials, reports the New York Sun. At RedState, "Leon H." observes that the tactic of "Borking" well-qualified nominees like Alito is damaging to the image of the legal profession as well as the courts, and is likely to provoke distaste from much of the bar, conservative or not. (via Taranto)(cross-posted from Point of Law).

ABC News "Nightline" is strongly in contention for that honor with its breathless Brian Ross investigative report on Justice Scalia's Federalist Society appearance. A general hail of dead cats has descended on ABC from commentators including, among others: Tom Goldstein, SCOTUSblog; Mike Cernovich, and again at more length; Orin Kerr; Sean Sirrine, Objective Justice; Ed Brayton; and Bill Nienhuis. Don't just blame ABC, though. Blame lawprof Stephen Gillers, who was much rel

Ever since Judge Samuel Alito was nominated to the Supreme Court, the Committee for Justice has been hammering away on the theme that it is

Via Taranto, here's TigerHawk posing a pertinent question regarding Sen. Kennedy's demand that the Senate subpoena the private paper

Prof. Bainbridge reflects on the Alito peril, as seen by Democratic senators: After catching up on the first day of the Alito hearings, one conclusion seems inescapable; namely, that Alito is more machine now than man; twisted and evil. He yearns to take liberals, women, minorities, gays, small children, and puppies to the Dune Sea, and cast them into the pit of Carkoon, the nesting place of the all-powerful Sarlaac, in whose belly they will find a new definition of pain and

Some reporters have been treating Alito’s adherence to the unitary executive theory as a hint he will support President Bush’s most expansive claims to executive power. But is it? No. The basic concept of the unitary executive goes like this: When the framers gave power to Congress, they specified Congress could exercise only the powers specifically enumerated (“herein granted). By contrast, when the framers gave the executive branch power, they didn’t use the same magic wo