Posner vs. Scalia

In The New Republic, Richard Posner attacks Justice Scalia's majority opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller. It's amusing to see the two most prominent and influential conservatives in the legal world going at it.

But wait, two Federalist Society icons sharply disagreeing on a fundamental constitutional issue such as originalism? What happened to the sinister group of far-right extremists dedicated to packing the courts with originalists that Kathy G made up described? Could it be that Kathy G doesn't really know anything about the FedSoc, or about the numerous and competing judicial philosophies that FedSoc members espouse? Nah. She's so sure of herself—what with all her experience practicing law and studying judicial philosophies in law school. She can't be wrong!

Kathy G's quaint little black-and-white, good-and-evil world brings to mind this quote about the Federalist Society:

"The Federalist Society has become kind of mythologized," said Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, who often speaks at the group's events. "For those who don't really know what they do, the ACLU can be shorthand for the liberal agenda and the Federalist Society can be shorthand for the conservative legal agenda."

Apparently the president of the ACLU is just another one of those "suckers" who don't understand the FedSoc as well as Kathy G.

Also, Kathy G deemed Cass Sunstein unworthy of a Supreme Court appointment because of his traitorous praise of the FedSoc. I guess that means Elena Kagan, the Dean of Harvard Law School and probable frontrunner for the first open Supreme Court seat in an Obama administration, is out too. After all, she gave a speech in which she declared:

"I love the Federalist Society."

So I guess Dean Elena Kagan is insufficiently liberal and "breathtakingly naïve" too. Or something like that.

(I know I've been hard on Kathy G for her post on Sunstein and the Federalist Society, and a lot of it is in jest, but she also writes some great posts. In particular, her post on "the small n problem" should be required reading for all political journalists. Try explaining the small n problem to a group of self-annointed politicos in a Georgetown bar, and you'll be mocked for not understanding electoral politics. I swear. It's like they think the laws of probability don't apply inside the Beltway.)