[Supreme Court]

The Ostrich Defense.

By odd coincidence, I happened to spend a lot of time in the car yesterday during work hours, which gave me the opportunity (if that's the right word) to listen to much of the first day of the Alito hearings. My observation: they're absolutely worthless. We have created a fine art form of judicial hearings in which Senators ask questions to appease their constituents and the candidate goes for the ostrich defense--alternating between outright lies (I can't rightly remember, Senator, that was two whole years ago) and obvious obfuscation (true, I've written and spoken many times about how I despise Roe, but it's not something I can comment on here, because that would create controversy). Everyone smiles and jokes politely and Senators cast the votes they had intended, despite media appearances wherein they claim "I haven't made up my mind," and on we go.

It is perhaps no better or worse than previous models of judicial placement, but it is nevertheless an embarrassing farce.