Monday, July 15, 2013

Having a sad about Orin Kerr

This comment, and the replies to it, crystalized for me why I had lost my respect for Orin Kerr, the best blogger at Volokh.com.

But really that's not saying much - see e.g. here. Still, consider this simplistic post. I'm quite unhappy with many aspects of Snowden/Greenwald's actions, so it's especially obvious to me that there's no need to turn off one's brain to criticize them. And see comments for startling petulance on Prof. Kerr's part when commenters dare to point out the flaws in his position; the responses to that petulance make me feel acutely embarrassed for him.

I managed to get banned at Volokh a while ago when expressing my surprise that Prof. Kerr was commenting on the PPACA discussion by the SCOTUS without knowing basic elements of the liberal case (which had bee widely reported in mainstream media). I've been hoping for a long time that volokh.com would be a good source of reality-based conservative opinion, but in post after post one has to read the comments to learn highly pertinent facts about the topic. And after the horrific Shelby decision tearing up the voting rights of a huge section of society for the benefit of a political party, the Volokh response was, well, saddening. As someone trying to be informed, and as an American citizen, it sucks that the best the conservative (legal) blogosphere has to offer is so shoddy.