[Ed. note: We're all over the roofies at Bingham story. Look out for a post shortly.]

Here is a juicy bit of unconfirmed gossip, about the complicated love lives of three leading legal / political thinkers. From a Harvard Law School alum who was a year ahead of celebrity professor Samantha Power (one of the world's top 100 public intellectuals):

Cass Sunstein and Samantha Power are engaged, but apparently it's all secret because Cass hasn't told [his former paramour] Martha Nussbaum yet.

Well, it's not a secret any more.

We reached out to both Professor Sunstein and Professor Power. Neither had any comment (hence our treatment of this as unconfirmed). If you happen to have more info, please email us.

The Sunstein-Power romance, as you may recall, blossomed when they were working for the Obama campaign. Now, of course, Senator Barack Obama is on the brink of securing the Democratic presidential nomination. If he wins the general election, expect both Sunstein and Power to land plum positions in the Obama administration.

How plum? Check out Garrett Graff's fantastic piece about possible Obama cabinet picks, in the latest issue of Washingtonian magazine. Graff identifies Power, "the Pulitzer-winning human-rights researcher and author," as a "wild card" on Obama's foreign policy team.

"Wild card," indeed. As Graff notes, Power "helped tutor Obama in foreign policy, but resigned after comments where she called Hillary Clinton a 'monster.'" Graff suggests that Power "might take a leading role on the National Security Council or at the State Department or Pentagon."

And what about Cass Sunstein? He's not mentioned in the Washingtonian article, which focuses on Cabinet positions. But we could easily see Professor Sunstein, an authority on administrative law, snagging a seat on the prestigiously glistening D.C. Circuit -- en route to a possible berth on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Expect these two to be the toast of the D.C. cocktail party circuit in 2009 -- or, in the event of a John McCain victory, the most coveted company at Harvard faculty dinner parties.

Who Might Be on an Obama Cabinet? [Washingtonian]

Earlier: The Real Reason Cass Sunstein's Going to Harvard? He's Got the Power
Wanna Be A Public Intellectual? Date Cass Sunstein!

In the current issue of Foreign Policy magazine, you'll find their list of the world's top 100 public intellectuals. The list appears here (and you can vote for your top five). Bios of the honorees -- and we must confess, some of these names didn't ring a bell -- appear here.

The public intellectuals explicitly identified on the list as lawyers, judges, or legal scholars are (in alphabetical order):

-- Aitzaz Ahsan, president of Pakistan's Supreme Court Bar Association, and a leader in the Pakistan People's Party;

-- Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights lawyer and Nobel laureate;

-- Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig; and

-- Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit, who wrote the book on public intellectuals.

And here are two other honorees with legal links:

-- University of Chicago law professor and philosopher Martha Nussbaum; and

-- journalist, Harvard Law School graduate, and Kennedy School of Government professor Samantha Power.

What do Professors Nussbaum and Power share in common? Cass Sunstein, as you may recall.

Professor Nussbaum is a former flame of Professor Sunstein, while Professor Power is his current main squeeze. Rumor has it that his move to Harvard Law School from his longtime academic home, the University of Chicago Law School, was prompted by a desire to be closer to the center of power -- Samantha Power, that is.

In their paper Six Degrees of Cass Sunstein: Collaboration Networks in Legal Scholarship, Professors Paul Edelman and Tracey George declared Cass Sunstein to be the "Kevin Bacon" of the law. But it looks like his influence extends beyond the narrow world of legal academia, into the World of Ideas, writ large.

In sum, two percent of the world's top 100 public intellectuals are former or current lovers of Cass Sunstein. This should provide consolation for Cass, who didn't make the list himself.

Professor Sunstein, you are the man.

The Top 100 Public Intellectuals [Foreign Policy]
The Top 100 Public Intellectuals: Bios [Foreign Policy]
Six Degrees of Cass Sunstein: Collaboration Networks in Legal Scholarship [SSRN / Green Bag]

Earlier: The Real Reason Cass Sunstein's Going to Harvard? He's Got the Power

We updated this on our original post from this morning about Samantha Power calling Hillary Clinton a "monster," but it's a big enough development to cover in a separate post. Ms. Power, rumored love interest of Cass Sunstein, resigned from the Obama campaign because of her tawdry remarks about Hillary Clinton in an interview earlier this week. She also apologized publicly [via NYT]:

“With deep regret, I am resigning from my role as an adviser the Obama campaign effective today,” Ms. Power said in a statement released by the campaign. “Last Monday, I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor, and purpose of the Obama campaign. And I extend my deepest apologies to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama, and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months.”

Obama Aide Resigns for Calling Clinton a "Monster" [NYT]

That statement was made by Samantha Power, a top foreign policy aid for Obama and new-ish love interest of Professor Cass Sunstein. Sunstein recently accepted a position at Harvard Law, leaving behind in Chicago his ex, philosopher Martha Nussbaum. Bossman David Lat posted all the gossip about the academic love triangle here.

Power, who is pictured, let her words slip during an interview in London with The Scotsman yesterday. Other tasty bits from that interview:

"We f***** up in Ohio," she admitted.

"You just look at her [Clinton] and think, 'Ergh'.

Apparently, Ms. Power was under the impression that her remarks were "off the record," and therefore couldn't be attributed to her. The interview was actually totally on the record, and The Scotsman gives an explanation at the bottom of the link.

UPDATE: Power has resigned from the Obama campaign, effective immediately. [AP]

'Hillary Clinton's a monster': Obama Aid Blurts out Attack in Scotsman Interview [The Scotsman]

We greatly enjoyed our recent visit to the University of Chicago Law School. The U. Chicago students were very welcoming and made us feel right at home, even inviting us to their law school musical -- which, by the way, was delightful.

(We added many of them as friends on Facebook before we were mysteriously banned from the site, without notice or explanation. So if you no longer see us on FB, it's not because we "de-friended" you, but because our account was disabled.)

A few Chicago students, however, had a bone to pick with us. They objected to this ATL post, which cast the recently announced departure of Professor Cass Sunstein -- prominent scholar, beloved teacher, and possible Supreme Court nominee under President Obama -- as a hiring coup by Harvard Law School, a triumph by HLS over Chicago. They emphasized that Professor Sunstein's leaving the Windy City for Cambridge was prompted by personal rather than professional reasons.

Professor Sunstein said as much his farewell email (emphasis added; in fact, all emphases added throughout this post, unless otherwise indicated):

I'm writing to say that I've just accepted an appointment at Harvard Law School. It is an understatement to say that I don't take this step easily or lightly. As most of you know, I've been reflecting on this question for several years. I finally decided, for personal reasons, that I need a change.

Since he's a prominent Obama supporter -- as well an adviser to the campaign, but more on that later, since it ties into our tale -- it's not surprising that Professor Sunstein is All About Change.

The law school's popular leader, Dean Saul Levmore, also stressed the personal component to Professor Sunstein's move. As he told the University of Chicago's student newspaper, the Maroon:

“I’m sort of embarrassed that [the story] said that the University of Chicago couldn’t be reached for comment,” Levmore said. “It looks like we didn’t want to talk, but the truth is that this decision [to leave Chicago for Harvard] was based on personal reasons and I respect that privacy. The media will find out about them soon enough.”

With a comment like this, Dean Levmore was basically begging us to go digging. So dig we did.

Let's see, Cass Sunstein's "personal reasons" for leaving U. Chicago... hold on a sec. Isn't Professor Sunstein part of legal academia's most fabulous power couple, together with that renowned philosopher queen, Professor Martha Nussbaum? And didn't Professor Nussbaum just turn down a Harvard offer?

That was then; this is now. What we learned in our investigation is consistent with this ATL comment, as well as this (subsequently removed) Wikipedia edit.

It appears that Professor Sunstein may be part of a new "power couple" -- in the most literal sense. Rumor has it that he's romantically involved with Professor Samantha Power -- a beautiful, brainy professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, who is roughly 15 years his junior. She is a Pulitzer Prize winner who has also been profiled in Men's Vogue (see glamorous photo, at the top of this post). What's not to like?

Update: More about Samantha Power here (from a college classmate who tried to hit on her, without success, and just ended arguing politics with her).

Now, please don't give us full credit (or blame) for bringing to light the Sunstein-Power relationship. When we attended the Chicago Law School musical last weekend, Samantha Power got a shout-out near the end of the show, when the Cass Sunstein character announced his departure for Harvard. So the rumor of her romance with Professor Sunstein is already widely known throughout the U. Chicago community (and beyond); it's no state secret. It is already known to hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

We reached out to all three members of this Mensalicious love triangle, which seems to come straight out of a Saul Bellow novel. Find out what we learned -- two of them had no comment, but one of them did -- after the jump.

If we knew anything about sports, we'd say this is the legal academic equivalent of Major Player X leaving Super-Elite Team Y for Super-Elite Team Z. But we don't. So we'll just say it's one of the biggest law school hiring coups since Harvard Law School snatched half of Feldsuk from NYU.

HLS strikes again -- but this time around, the victim of their poaching is U. Chicago (where we'll be making an appearance later this week, by the way). From the Harvard Law School website:

Renowned legal scholar and political theorist Cass R. Sunstein '78 has accepted an offer to join the Harvard Law School faculty, Dean Elena Kagan '86 announced today. Sunstein, currently a tenured professor at the University of Chicago Law School, will begin teaching at HLS in the fall. He will also become director of the new Program on Risk Regulation.

"Cass Sunstein is the preeminent legal scholar of our time -- the most wide-ranging, the most prolific, the most cited, and the most influential," said Kagan. "His work in any one of the fields he pursues -- administrative law and policy, constitutional law and theory, behavioral economics and law, environmental law, to name a non-exhaustive few -- would put him in the very front ranks of legal scholars; the combination is singular and breathtaking...."

Some tipsters' takes:

"I imagine a lot of Chicago alums will be annoyed at the least."

"Yet another high-profile move to HLS. Dean Kagan has done an amazing job these past few years getting big names out to Cambridge. (I’m just annoyed because I decided to take Admin Law this semester.)"

"[W]e just learned that although Martha Nussbaum turned down Harvard and Brown last week, Cass Sunstein ACCEPTED his Harvard Law offer! I'm torn - HUGE get in Sunstein, proving Elena Kagan is unstoppable, but is this trouble for the power couple?"

In December, we attended Professor Sunstein's 2007 Distinguished Lecture at AEI in Washington, DC (where we're currently based). We were mighty impressed by the good professor, who wasn't just brilliant and articulate, but also funny and self-effacing. Congrats to HLS and Dean Kagan on this latest addition to the Cambridge constellation of legal geniuses!

Update: Additional analysis of the Sunstein move from Professor Brian Leiter appears here. It seems that all is well in Sunstein-Nussbaum land. Per Professor Leiter:

[A]s Cass told me, he will be keeping his Chicago apartment and an office at the University of Chicago Law School, and he will also continue teaching part-time at Chicago as the Harry Kalven Visiting Professor of Law (probably in the winter quarters).

Further Update / Correction: Uh, scratch that. As you may have surmised from some of the comments, Professors Nussbaum and Sunstein are no longer an item. Professor Sunstein has a new honey, Professor Samantha Power, of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He's moving to Harvard in part because of this new romance. More details here.

Sunstein, Harvard, Chicago [Leiter's Law School Reports]
Nussbaum Declines Harvard, Brown Offers, and Will Remain at Chicago [Leiter's Law School Reports]
Sunstein to join Harvard Law School faculty [Harvard Law School]
Cass Sunstein bio [University of Chicago Law School]
2007 Distinguished Lecture: Extremism [American Enterprise Institute]