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.

Last week, speaking before a class at Harvard Law School, we vowed that we would track down the two missing Alito clerks for October Term 2008. As President Bush might say, "Mission Accomplished."

These two gents will be clerking for Justice Samuel A. Alito in October Term 2008:

1. Michael Park (Yale 2001 / Alito)

2. Andrew Oldham (Harvard 2005 / Sentelletubby)

For those of you keeping track at home, the list of OT 2008 Supreme Court law clerks is now complete. Jaynie Randall, identified as a future Alito clerk, has been moved to October Term 2009 (which is when she'll be clerking for SAA, we've been told).

Both Park and Oldham are currently attorney-advisors at the DOJ's super-powerful and prestigious Office of Legal Counsel. They don't call OLC the Finishing School for the Elect for nothing!

Yesterday we raised the possibility that Messrs. Park and Oldham, in laying low as SCOTUS clerks, were being a bit "precious." We have nothing against preciousness -- it's our stock in trade here at ATL -- but we take back the suggestion with respect to Park and Oldham. The reason the word about them took so long to get out is that they were initially told to keep the good news to themselves -- which they did, showing the discretion to be expected of Supreme Court clerks.

While we're on the subject, we reiterate this recent request, related to our attempt to build a demographic portrait of the incoming clerk class:

If you know of either (1) a clerk who is a racial or ethnic minority or (2) a clerk whose gender is not revealed by their name (we already know that incoming AMK clerk Ashley Keller is a guy), please let us know, preferably by email (subject line: "SCOTUS clerk demographics"). Thanks.

The corrected OT 2008 and OT 2009 SCOTUS clerk lists -- with Michael Park and Andrew Oldham added, and Jaynie Randall moved to OT 2009 -- appear after the jump.