Mr. Popular

This article from the Boston Globe concerning liberal activist US District Judge Nancy Gertner and her blogging hobby is notable not for its discussion of Gertner but rather for its quotation of Professor Doug Kmiec. Kmiec thinks it's a fine idea for Gertner publicly (she blogs on Slate with Kmiec and others) to call into question the efficacy of the laws she is charged with enforcing. Quoth the former Reagan-administration-official-turned-law-prof:

It's one thing for us pontificators to speak grandly about how we'd like to see the law arranged. It's another for someone who bears the burden of that responsibility and has identified a . . . shortcoming in the law to be able to say, "I've seen the consequences of this, and the consequences are worrisome."

Right. It is another thing altogether. Several adjectives comes to mind: unseemly, inappropriate, partisan, dangerous. Public confidence in the judiciary and the rule of law depends in part on the confidence that judges demonstrate for the laws they must apply. When judges actively undermine confidence in the law, they undermine confidence in their rulings. If Judge Gertner thinks the federal sentencing guidelines and federal exercises of prosecutorial discretion are unjust, she should resign and do everything in her power as a private citizen to reform the law.

That much is old news. Waddya know? Another Clinton appointee on a federal bench actively undermining both the rule of law and confidence in it. We're shocked, right?

The truly befuddling aspect of this story is Kmiec's role. Since the former conservative endorsed Barack Obama and dissed John McCain he has been the liberal media's favorite "conservative." That is fine and dandy if he is still committed to conservative principles; I do not begrudge him his newfound popularity. But I am increasingly skeptical that he is still one of us.