I cannot say I was particularly impressed with Ian Millhiser’s article, How Conservatives Abandoned Judicial Restraint, Took Over The Courts And Radically Transformed America, except insofar as it was actually pretty impressive how he was able to dredge up, dust off, and then somehow include in a single essay pretty much every Leftie trope about conservative and libertarian constitutionalism, no matter how internally inconsistent or inaccurate. In the end, though, the piece turned out to be just another “restraint for thee, but not for me” missive like those I have been hearing ever since the Rehnquist Court adopted its “this far and no farther” (without justification and a limiting principle) approach to the so-called “New Deal Settlement” and was accused of “Conservative Judicial Activism.”
But for me the piece totally redeems itself by this passage:
If the Federalist Society played walk up music when its speakers took the stage, Barnett’s theme song would be “Damn, It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta.”
For this, I will forever be grateful to Mr. Millhiser and would like one day to shake his hand.