Heard the Solicitor General review the current Supreme Court term at a Federalist Society Meeting. There were several interesting things about the lunch, which I'll blog about as I find the time. For now, I'll just say that Federalist Society members are mad at O'Connor. There were several pointed barbs thrown her direction by the emcee (though not, I should say, by the SG who, though critical of some of the Court's decisions was very professional). And, if you agree with their views, you can see why. Its not quite the O'Connor Court, but she was in the majority in almost all the 5-4 and 6-3 votes, including the big federalism case, Nevada v. Hibbs, the homosexual sex case, Lawrence v. Texas, and she wrote the affirmative action case, Grutter v. Michigan. Not a very conservative record.

And, here's a bonus factoid: the previous big affirmative action decision, Bakke was decided in 1978, 25 years ago. Justice O'Connor's opinion in Grutter expresses her hope that affirmative action to create a "critical mass" of diversity will be unnecessary in 25 years. Is that an accident?
- posted by Tom Sawyer @ 5:08 PM