I’ll take a shot at Ramesh’s point, which I believe Matthew made the other day, about the illogical of treating differently a law review piece from a judicial determination. They are quite different. Authors of opinion pieces, like law review articles, are only bound by the limits of their imagination (tempered by the watchful eyes of their editors and potential critics). Judges are (supposed to be) bound by the law and facts before them. Indeed, there is an entire set of rules imposed on a judge that he is required to follow in adjudicating cases, and the manner in which he does or does not adhere to them is important as well — including constitutional limits. The writer and the adjudicator have two different roles. That’s not to say that law review articles aren’t worth reviewing to try to discern a nominee’s judicial philosophy, but they’re not as compelling, to my way of thinking, as a judge’s jurisprudence.