Mellor is president and general counsel of the Institute for Justice.
Nominees for the Court: Pepperdine law professor Douglas Kmiec would be sympathetic on many libertarian issues; not flag burning or some national security issues, perhaps, but economic liberty certainly.
Justice Janice Brown of the California Supreme Court would be terrific.
A dose of Richard Epstein on the Court could only be good for America, even if pretty disruptive in the short term.
Favorite sitting Supreme Court justice: I don't really have a favorite, but I certainly admire Justice Clarence Thomas for his intellectual integrity and willingness to go to first principles and articulate those in a direct and thoughtful way.
All-time favorite Supreme Court justice: I don't think I could pick a particular justice, but there are opinions and dissents I like a great deal. The dissents in the Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) by Justices Joseph Bradley and Stephen Field were clear and insightful in their defense of individual rights, here economic liberties.
Harvey Silverglate
Silverglate is a Boston-based criminal defense and civil liberties litigator and writer.
Nominees for the Court: Eugene Volokh, UCLA Law School, because he is a consistent and forceful defender of First Amendment rights and, in particular, has a deep understanding of how "harassment" law poses a mortal danger to free speech and free thought in academia and in the workplace.
Judge Frank H. Easterbrook, 7th Circuit, because, as a principled conservative, he wrote the profound opinion in American Booksellers Association v. Hudnut (1985) and tore the "civil rights protection" facade off an ordinance that sought to censor protected speech. This opinion was summarily affirmed, without dissent, by the Supreme Court.
Judge Nancy Gertner, U.S. District Court in Boston, because, as a principled liberal and a former criminal defense, civil rights, and civil liberties trial lawyer, she understands the realities of the system but refrains from going beyond the proper role of a judge in changing it. She delivers impartial, honest, fair, and realistic justice to the extent allowed by the law.
Favorite sitting Supreme Court justice: Antonin Scalia. He is willing to say that when a constitutional right appears on its face to be absolute, it is entitled to be enforced despite the government's breathless claims that enforcement will mean the collapse of the Republic. His decision in last summer's "enemy combatant" case--charge and try him or release him--cut through the nonsense and obfuscations that appeared to dazzle the other justices. Despite Scalia's blind eye on the subject of religion, he lends important heft to the enforcement of certain crucial rights much in danger during the current "war on terror."
All-time favorite Supreme Court justice: Robert Jackson. His magisterial opinion for the Court in West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), decided in the middle of a world war and reversing a "patriotic" precedent only three years old, proclaimed the right of Jehovah's Witness children to refuse to pledge allegiance to the flag, thereby securing in one fell swoop the First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, religion, and conscience. He was one of the most powerful and elegant writers ever to sit on the Court, and he put his magnificent talent to work in support of a broad and deep vision of liberty.
Nat Hentoff
Hentoff, a nationally syndicated columnist, writes regularly for both the Village Voice and The Washington Times. His most recent book is The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance (2003).
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