Orin mentioned the upcoming ACS National Convention. In contemplation of a hypothetical Obama presidency, does anyone know what the public perception of ACS is? In other words, if Obama wins, will his nominees be interrogated about ACS affiliations like Federalist Society members have been? Will the Washington Post run stories on the ACS influence over the Justice Department? Will ACS members go out of their way to deny membership? Will an interation of the shoe being on the other foot have any lasting impact of taming this sort of behavior?

Although these questions seem like they are phrased tendentiously, I sincerely wonder about this. I have been distressed by what seems like the real dishonesty of some of the attacks on the Federalist Society and I'm wondering whether the absurdity and nastiness will continue to escalate or whether there will be some sort of truce and step in the direction of respect.

If I had to guess, I'd predict that Republicans and the media will not make a big deal out of ACS affiliation, but that doing so will do nothing to bring about reciprocity toward future Republican appointees.

Also, I wonder whether Republicans would be willing to filibuster Democratic judicial nominations. On this point, I have no strong intuition as to what to expect.

Update:

A couple of Commenters noted that the Republicans used delaying tactics with Clinton nominees--that certainly is true. But they were in the majority at that time. The question I was wondering is whether as members of the minority they would actually formally filibuster nominees. The two issues may essentially the same, but it is not obvious to me that using informal obstructionist tactics when in the majority automatically means that they would use a formal filibuster when in the minority.