The second panel we attended at the recent convention of the American Constitution Society (ACS) focused on a topic near and dear to our heart: free speech on the internet.

The panel, The Internet Revolution and Its Effect on the First Amendment, featured the following participants:

We’re quite talented at bringing you last week’s news. See, e.g., our ridiculously extensive coverage of the Battle of the Law Firm Bands.

The main reason for our D.C. visit was not the Battle of the Bands, but the national convention of the American Constitution Society (ACS) — the left’s answer to the Federalist Society. With the Democrats in control of both Congress and the White House, this year’s conference was well-attended and celebratory. There was even an upgrade in venue, from the Hyatt Regency to the Mayflower Renaissance.

(Was Eliot Spitzer on the program committee? Or did ACS go with the Mayflower because it’s the traditional venue for the annual conference of the Federalist Society?)

The first plenary panel of this year’s ACS conference featured a star-studded cast:

Could this be a mini-U.S. Attorneys firing scandal in the making? That’s what a just-released report from the Justice Department’s inspector general seems to suggest. From the New York Times:

Justice Department officials over the last six years illegally used “political or ideological” factors to hire new lawyers into an elite recruitment program, tapping law school graduates with conservative credentials over those with liberal-sounding resumes, a new report found Tuesday.

The blistering report, prepared by the Justice Department’s inspector general, is the first in what will be a series of investigations growing out of last year’s scandal over the firings of nine United States attorneys. It appeared to confirm for the first time in an official examination many of the allegations from critics who charged that the Justice Department had become overly politicized during the Bush administration.

One reader who sent the article our way wrote: “Shocker.” A second quipped: “Quelle surprise.” To read the 115-page report, click here (PDF, via the WSJ).

Update: From a tipster comes this interesting info:

DOJ hiring practice report out. Doesn’t look good, though I would certainly say they’ve revamped the system in the last year or so. I was hired through Honors last fall to start this coming fall, and my resume is very leftist. I can say the same for two friends who were also hired through Honors last year.

Further Update: Lots of good stuff in the comments, including highlights from the report. E.g.:

2002 applicants: ACS, 0-7; FedSoc, 27-2.
2006 applicants: ACS, 5-2; FedSoc, 15-4.

Report Sees Illegal Hiring Practices at Justice Department [New York Times]
Auditors Say Justice Dept. Improperly Screened for Political Ties [Washington Post]
IG Report: Greenpeace Bad, Federalist Society Good [WSJ Law Blog]

Welcome to the latest post in our recent series on the 2008 National Convention of the American Constitution Society. We attended lots of excellent events as part of the conference. Prior posts appear here and here.

One of our favorite events was the Saturday lunch panel, “Covering the Court.” It was moderated by Thomas Goldstein, of Akin Gump and SCOTUSblog fame, and featured the following distinguished members of the Supreme Court press corps:

As we mentioned yesterday, we’re currently attending the 2008 National Convention of the American Constitution Society. For those of you not familiar with ACS, here’s a short description:

The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) is one of the nation’s leading progressive legal organizations. Founded in 2001, ACS is a rapidly growing network of lawyers, law students, scholars, judges, policymakers and other concerned individuals. Our mission is to ensure that fundamental principles of human dignity, individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, and access to justice enjoy their rightful, central place in American law.

The energy level and enthusiasm are high among conference attendees, with the sense that their star is on the rise. After eight long years in the executive branch wilderness, the left is poised to retake the White House, through the unstoppable campaign of Barack Obama. (Like the Federalist Society on the right, ACS is a non-partisan, non-profit educational organization. As such, it does not endorse presidential candidates. But as with the Fed Soc, it’s clear where its members’ political sympathies generally reside.)

Speaking of politics, this morning there was a fantastic plenary panel on the presidential selection process, election law, and related topics. If you’re a political junkie, check out our write-up of the discussion, after the jump.

We’re attending the 2008 National Convention of the American Constitution Society (aka the Federalist Society of the Left, for those of you not familiar with the ACS). It’s being held today and tomorrow at the Hyatt Regency here in Washington, DC. The theme of this year’s conference: “Revitalizing Our Democracy: Progress and Possibilities.” Read: “Welcome President Obama: It’s Good To Be Back in the House!”

We may be filing some dispatches from the proceedings. We’d liveblog the panels contemporaneously, but neither the hotel wireless nor our wi-fi card worked inside the hotel’s subterranean ballroom. So we will post in between sessions, when we can.

These comments — essentially a liveblog, but posted after the fact — will have an unpolished, stream-of-consciousness quality. Expect lots of randomness (and typos).

The first report, about the very interesting (and star-studded) plenary panel, “Law and Justice Policies in a New Administration,” appears after the jump.

As noted in the Washington Post, President Bush is expected to name Alberto Gonzales’s replacement as attorney general in the next few days, after returning from Australia tomorrow. The WaPo seems to be predicting Ted Olson:

[F]ormer solicitor general Theodore B. Olson has emerged as one of the leading contenders for the job, according to sources inside and outside the government who are familiar with White House deliberations.

Other candidates still in the running include former deputy attorney general George J. Terwilliger III and D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Laurence H. Silberman, according to the sources, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

Even though we’re still rooting for our former boss, based on this short list, we’re predicting Judge Laurence Silberman (who previously served as Deputy Attorney General, the #2 job at the Justice Department).

More thoughts, including discussion of George Terwilliger and Larry Thompson, after the jump.

Not too long ago, we said we had a “gut feeling” that some Supreme Court clerk hiring was going on (despite the Court being in recess). We were right.

Meet Porter Wilkinson. And don’t hate her because she’s beautiful. Or brilliant. Or rich. Or the daughter of a top feeder judge and frequent Supreme Court short-lister, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson (4th Cir.).

Or, for that matter, a future Supreme Court clerk. We hear that Judge Wilkinson’s daughter — yes, Porter is a girl’s name, if you’re a WASP — just landed an October Term 2008 clerkship with Chief Justice John Roberts. Congratulations, Porter!

Not surprisingly, we hear that the young Ms. Wilkinson is fairly conservative — in case you couldn’t have guessed that from the fact that she’s currently clerking for Judge Brett Kavanaugh (D.C. Cir.) (alongside the lovely, and recently married, Zina Gelman).

And where did we hear about Porter’s politics? From Judge Wilkinson himself!

In late July, we attended the excellent national convention of the American Constitution Society, in Washington, DC. Judge Wilkinson was on one of the panels. In thanking the ACS for inviting him, he noted that his son is a member of the liberal organization — but that he’s balanced out by his sister Porter, a card-carrying member of the Federalist Society. We bet the Wilkinsons must have interesting dinner table conversations.

Porter Wilkinson continues the trend of fathers and daughters who both clerked for the Court (as noted by Tony Mauro). See here.

Update: A tipster tells us, “FYI, Porter was an All-American lacrosse player at UNC. See here. Her husband [Christian Cook] was lacrosse Defenseman of the Year at Princeton and three-time national champion. Formerly of the Secret Service. See here. They got married this past summer in Charlottesville.”

With Porter Wilkinson added, the current list of OT 2008 clerks thus far appears after the jump.

Graduation Awards: Four in the Class of 2007: Porter Wilkinson [Virginia Law]
Carter Phillips’ Kin Is Alito Clerk [Legal Times]

We’re going to be offline for a few hours. If anything big happens while we’re gone, and we don’t write about it immediately, now you know why. (Posts that we drafted earlier will be published while we’re gone.)

We’re going to attend this event, about the economics of internet advertising — which, of course, is what pays the bills around here. If you enjoy reading ATL, please support our advertisers.

Yes, the event is sponsored by AEI, a right-of-center think tank. But the topic isn’t terribly partisan.

And to atone for this visit to the premises of AEI, guess what? We’re going to spend the better part of two days later this month (July 27-28) covering the 2007 ACS National Convention, here in DC. If you’d like to attend, it’s not too late to register; you can do so by clicking here.

(If you’re planning to attend the ACS convention, look out for us — we’ll be easy to spot. We’ll be snapping photographs of the fabulous Judge Marsha Berzon, as if she were Angelina Jolie on the red carpet.)

Update (2:30 PM): We’re back. Today’s event was co-sponsored by the left-leaning Brookings Institution, so our conscience is clear.

The Economics of Internet Advertising: Implications for the Google-DoubleClick Merger [American Enterprise Institute]
Fifth Annual ACS National Convention: Toward a Just Future [American Constitution Society]