The Volokh Conspiracy

Federalist Society Lawyer's Convention:
This year's Federalist Society lawyer's convention is November 20-22, and the line-up looks interesting as always. In case you're wondering, four five VC bloggers (Eugene, Todd, David B, Jim, and Jonathan) will be speaking. Registration is available here.

  The official theme of the Convention is "The People and the Judiciary." I believe they wanted to make the official theme either, "Wow, We Did it Again," or "We Are Seriously Screwed Now, Eh?", but they needed to print the pamphlets before November 4th.
krs:
"We Are Seriously Screwed Now, Eh?"

The subtext being that if Obama gets elected, we should move to Canada?
10.7.2008 3:35pm
Steve:
I suspect the theme might be "None Of Us Are Getting Nominated To Anything For The Next Four Years."
10.7.2008 3:51pm
Kevin R:
The subtext being that if Obama gets elected, we should move to Canada?

Given the Fraser Institutes's latest economic freedom rankings, that might not be a bad idea.
10.7.2008 3:54pm
Kevin R:
Institutes's

If I'm lucky, they are less strict about apostrophe usage in Canada, too.
10.7.2008 3:55pm
Jonathan H. Adler (mail) (www):
Actually, make that five. I'll be speaking on a panel as well.

JHA
10.7.2008 4:22pm
js5 (mail):
maybe there will be some discussion about this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/washington/08detain.html


A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Bush administration to immediately release 17 Chinese Muslims who have been held for seven years at Guantánamo Bay, and to allow them to stay in the United States, because they are no longer considered enemy combatants.
10.7.2008 4:33pm
Anderson (mail):
Really, they could have gone with "We Are Seriously Screwed Now, Eh?" in either event.
10.7.2008 4:57pm
TalkingHead:
Statists immigrate to Canada. Freemarketers head to that tax haven to the south, Panama.
10.7.2008 5:16pm
Ubu Walker (mail):
"How The Federalist Society Destroyed the Federal Government By Running Up Huge Deficits According To Plan" might be a more accurate title.
10.7.2008 5:33pm
Larry Fafarman (mail) (www):
To me, any Federalist Society conference is suspect because the Federalist Society is extremely originalist and is likely to choose only or mainly originalist speakers.

IMO Supreme Court justices should be chosen by lottery from a list of qualified candidates and should serve a fixed number of years. Judges in lower courts are assigned to cases on a random basis, so why shouldn"t Supreme Court justices also be chosen at random? The present method of selecting justices means that they are often ideological extensions of the president and the Senate. Also, jurists chosen for the Supreme Court are likely to be activists because activists are more likely to decide cases the way that the president and the Senate want the cases to be decided.
10.7.2008 6:04pm
OrinKerr:
Larry,

Your description of the Federalist Society is inaccurate.
10.7.2008 6:18pm
Steve:
Note how Orin disagrees with Larry's comment, but not with the comment before that one! Very telling.
10.7.2008 6:53pm
Anderson (mail):
Note how Orin disagrees with Larry's comment, but not with the comment before that one! Very telling.

"Telling" in the same way as Obama's failing to state that he is not in fact a terrorist bent on destroying America is "telling."

How the Federalist Society has any role in deficit-creation is a bit beyond me.
10.7.2008 7:01pm
OrinKerr:
Steve,

No, not telling: Ubu Walker's comment was just incomprehensible, so I didn't respond to it. Please understand that my failure to say I disagree with something written on the Internet is not some kind of implicit endorsement of it.
10.7.2008 7:02pm
Steve:
Cmon, surely it was (mostly) obvious that I was just teasing!
10.7.2008 7:09pm
Anderson (mail):
Cmon, surely it was (mostly) obvious that I was just teasing!

I for one am glad to hear it, but considering the level of evidence &accusation hereabouts lately, it was perfectly plausible. Isn't that scary?

Maybe you could've posted as "Son of Sarcastro."
10.7.2008 7:19pm
Steve:
Wait, you mean Sarcastro isn't serious?
10.7.2008 7:36pm
OrinKerr:
Anderson,

Yup, sadly you're right. Sigh.
10.7.2008 9:27pm
Psalm91 (mail):
How many of you will be talking about Bill Ayers by then?
10.7.2008 9:46pm
Jonathan H. Adler (mail) (www):
Sarcastro is my hero (and not just because he was voiced by Charlie Adler -- no relation).

Why doesn't the Cartoon Network show more Tick reruns? Is it the Federalist Society's fault?
10.7.2008 9:52pm
theobromophile (www):
Your description of the Federalist Society is inaccurate.

He left out the part about the secret handshakes and unspeakable initiation practises.

Looks like a good convention, but wasn't there a similar topic a few years back? Student Symposium, maybe?
10.8.2008 3:51am

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