The Point

The point of my extended critique of the Alliance for Justice claim that seven of thirteen courts of appeals are controlled by the extreme right (see here and here) is that they’re coming at the issue the wrong way. It may be that the extreme right controls some number of courts, and if so, they should let us know. Counting noses is the wrong way to argue that point. Detailed analysis and argument seems to me to be the only way to show that conclusion. Numbers are helpful for many things, but (as scholars like that hardline conservative Ronald Dworkin like to remind us) they are of limited utility in many circumstances. This is one of them.

Bonus Rant

One other issue remains. Whose idea was it to characterize of every single Republican appointee as “extreme right.” I can understand a characterization of “Right,” given the generality of political labels. But “extreme right”? Who’s appointing the moderate-rights, then? Are all Rights extreme? Slightly less than half the country voted for Bush — are they all extremists too? Any definition of “extreme” which stretches this broadly is, it seems to me, functionally useless.