ACSBlog: The Blog of the American Constitution Society

The ACS 2007 National Convention is continuing to make news.

C-Span provided coverage to three panels discussions, two of which have aired several times:

• The Role of the Justice Department
• Immigration and the Judiciary
• Examining "Backlash" and Attacks on Landmark Decisions

Senator Schumer's speech (text) (video) addressed three main issues regarding the nominations of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito:

• Question One: Were the then-nominees sincere in their representations to the Senate Judiciary Committee?
• Question Two: What lessons should we draw from the process that led to the confirmation of Roberts and Alito?
• Question Three: How should we apply those lessons to the next nomination to the Supreme Court?

The speech made headlines around the world. It was covered in The Washington Post, The Guardian, the Politico, UPI, Reuters,  HuffingtonPost, DailyKos, ScotusBlog, TalkLeft, and many others.

In addition, Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money, who spoke on the anti-judicial backlash panel, had very kind words to say about the Convention.

The conference was really good; I strongly recommend it if you're interested in such things. I was on a panel about anti-judicial backlash with the Reva Seigel, Robert Post, Roger Wilkins and Jeff Rosen, moderated by Edward "Closed Chambers" Lazurus. Although frequently timorous in social contexts I've rarely been at all nervous about public speaking, but given the shockingly large crowd (at academic conferences, I'm used to more like 5 audience members, and which as you can see was certainly not because of my presence!) and the high-wattage co-panelists it was a humbling experience, but I think a productive one. It was also filmed for C-SPAN, so it will probably be shown on a weekend late night so that the alcoholics, angry loners, and/or unemployables in our audience will be able to judge for themselves.