Prof. Steven Calabresi (Northwestern) Joining Us as a Co-Blogger

I'm delighted to report that Prof. Steven Calabresi (Clayton J. & Henry R. Barber Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law) is joining our merry band! Steve has written or cowritten over seventy law review articles and three books on constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, federal jurisdiction, and administrative law, and he also worked as a lawyer in the White House and in the Attorney General's office during the Reagan Administration. (Before that, he clerked for Justice Scalia and for Judges Bork and Winter.) Steve is also a co-founder of the Federalist Society and co-chairman of its Board of Directors, though of course all of his posts represent his own views and not of the Federalist Society, Northwestern, or any other institution.

Comments

[Cheshire]

Cool! And welcome.

[Mr. Bumble]

Wait for Rev. Costco's apoplectic comments in three, two.....

[F.D. Wolf]

The Blackman haters are really going to love Calabresi.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Someone (not me!) ought to do a statistical analysis of Blackman-hating comments before and after. Will they divide their wasted time, or double down? If they double down, find a couple more new co-bloggers of similar bent and see what the haters' thresholds are.

Also, how does Northwestern compare to South Texas on their contempt scale?

[Life of Brian]

Also, how does Northwestern compare to South Texas on their contempt scale?

Northwestern is in the hallowed top tier, so the typical prestige-driven Josh haters won't have their usual easy out and likely will actually have to put in some effort to work up a new angle. Might not be worth it for any but the most dedicated with the least of an actual life (here's looking at you, Artie).

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

here’s looking at you, Artie

If you are looking for Artie, you have chosen the wrong right-wing blog. Artie is not here. Artie was banned by the Volokh Conspiracy's conservative Board of Censors for making fun of Republicans and faux libertarians a bit too deftly for management's taste.

I am Arthur.

with the least of an actual life

An interesting point at a blog populated mostly by incels, disaffected clingers, antisocial culture war casualties, and awkward, on-the-spectrum IT desk jockeys on the graveyard shift.

[Life of Brian]

If you are looking for Artie [wah wah wah for the 1000th time wah]

And this right here, Artie, is one of the primary reasons I didn't just block you long ago: the dead-nuts predictability of both your triggers and your compulsive need to emote. Thank you for not disappointing yet again.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

If predictability bothered you, you wouldn't spend more than a day or two at the Volokh Conspiracy, which has become mostly (1) repetitive, cherry-picked, partisan ankle-nipping, (2) Prof. Blackman's junior varsity clinger polemics, (3) the weekly outrage concerning Prof. Somin's genuine libertarianism; and (4) the obligatory, frequent vile racial slurs.

[Life of Brian]

The only thing I really want to know at this point, Artie, is whether you've built up a repository of bilious phrases that you paste into your comments in endless combinations/permutations, or whether you sit there and grind out each one from whole cloth.

Not that either one strikes me as a shining barometer of mental health, but I confess it would be fascinating (however morbidly) to better understand exactly how much time you spend around here listening to yourself type your repetitive screeds that no one but you even vaguely values.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I choose words that seem appropriate to respond to the content of the Volokh Conspiracy.

I respond to bigotry, hypocrisy, cowardice, and repetition because that is what the Volokh Conspiracy offers.

The Volokh Conspirators publish vile racial slurs regularly -- more often that monthly. What is your opinion of that record of bilious phrasing, Life of Brian? I am interested in the reactions of racist Republicans, much as the Volokh Conspirators are.

Bigotry, cowardice, hypocrisy, and repetition.

[Eric VonSalzen]

Why in Heaven's name do you read such a blog?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

No free swings, clingers.

It's a marketplace of ideas.

And correcting the record is always worthwhile. Especially when some of the authors misappropriate the franchises of strong, legitimate, liberal-libertarian institutions, creating risk some inexperience readers might mistake this blog's contents for mainstream, credible commentary.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

In part, I read this blog to see whether any of the right-wingers who frequent the Volokh Conspiracy will have the courage to try to defend this blog's ample, disgusting record of publishing vile racial slurs to lather up a bigoted, disaffected, downscale fan base.

Cowardice. Hypocrisy. Bigotry. Repetition.

Carry on, clingers. Until replacement, that is.

[bernard11]

Why?

Do you think he's going to post about his favorite airplane seat, or try to advise Roberts on how to handle seating at oral argument?

I'm sure to disagree with many of his posts, but I doubt the will be better argued and less self-absorbed than Blackman's.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody’s perfect. It would probably be better if someone else would back me up in this. I have a long and storied history of looking for negative attention.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Nobody’s perfect.

School motto at South Texas College Of Law Houston!

[Stephen Lathrop]

Much better, the actually perfect reposte from Armando Galarraga, after umpire Jim Joyce blew the call on the 27th out at first base.

[bernard11]

I doubt the will be better argued and less self-absorbed than Blackman’s.

I don't doubt they will be better argued and less self-absorbed than Blackman’s.

[mulched]

Great news! Welcome Prof. Calabresi!

[santamonica811]

So, in other words, he's a liberal.

[California Dreamer]

It is a mistake to listen only to the views of people with whom one generally agrees. I read the Volokh Conspiracy for an articulate and intelligent presentation of a political perspective that I generally disagree with; that way I make sure that I'm not missing something. Prof. Calabresi is admirably equipped to fill that role, and he is therefore welcome.

[Shamie Ervin iv]

The more the merrier, and if he's liberal, well, most of us are mature enough to suffer through it.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

if he’s liberal

He has been invited to join the Volokh Conspiracy. He apparently has accepted the invitation.

He is not liberal.

He is not libertarian.

[Kazinski]

He was a cofounder of the Federalist Society, so he's not a liberal.

But he definitely isn't a bitter end Trumpist either, so he's got that going for him:
"I am frankly appalled by the president’s recent tweet seeking to postpone the November election. Until recently, I had taken as political hyperbole the Democrats’ assertion that President Trump is a fascist," Calabresi wrote.

"But this latest tweet is fascistic and is itself grounds for the president’s immediate impeachment again by the House of Representatives and his removal from office by the Senate."

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

That is a sound comment by Prof. Calabresi. The Volokh Conspiracy must have been unaware of it when it invited Prof. Calabresi.

[David Nieporent]

He also co-authored an amicus brief denouncing — nay, eviscerating — the insane "Independent State Legislature" argument that Republicans are pushing in front of SCOTUS at the present time.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-1271/243761/20221024133404048_21-1271%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Most of the Conspirators -- conspicuously including Prof. Volokh -- seem to have ducked that one.

Cowards.

[Commenter_XY]

A cofounder of the Federalist Society? Wow. This man directly influenced American history; it is amazing to be able to engage with him directly. That just doesn't happen very often. I look forward to the future learning, that part will be fun.

Professor Volokh: Thank you for making this happen.