Faithful readers will recall that, regarding the Harriet Miers nomination, I recently argued that conservatives must decide whether it is enough that Miers would "vote right." George Will has an answer:
In their unseemly eagerness to assure Miers's conservative detractors that she will reach the "right" results, her advocates betray complete incomprehension of this: Thoughtful conservatives' highest aim is not to achieve this or that particular outcome concerning this or that controversy. Rather, their aim for the Supreme Court is to replace semi-legislative reasoning with genuine constitutional reasoning about the Constitution's meaning as derived from close consideration of its text and structure. Such conservatives understand that how you get to a result is as important as the result. Indeed, in an important sense, the path that the Supreme Court takes to the result often is the result.
I agree with all of this except the notion that there has been anything "semi" in the legislative reasoning by left-wing judicial activists.
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