Orin Kerr about conservatives, judges and the horror of McCain-Feingold:
Perhaps a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, but I would think that this methodology as applied to campaign finance would lead a truly consistent conservative judge to be inclined to uphold McCain Feingold under old fashioned Thayeresque principles of judicial restraint, regardless of the merits of such legislation as a matter of policy.
He’s taking some heat over this, but it really does come down to the old question of what is a “conservative judge”: A judge whose decisions would be appreciated by conservatives because they hearken back to first principles? Or a judge who judges in a conservative fashion?
Choose which “c”‘s to capitalize yourself.
Kennedy — on the topic of the constitutional recognition of the value and need for the state to be able to demand, in the appropriate circumstances, that a free person with all sorts of rights … nonetheless tell it who the hell he is.
