Judge Brett Kavanaugh

* Many believe that today’s Supreme Court is one of the hottest benches in history; Adam Feldman uses data to assess the claim. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* As for who takes the SCOTUS bench, contingency plays a major role — along with credentials and conservatism, as Ian Millhiser explains. [ThinkProgress]

* Most people have their minds made up about Thursday’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings featuring Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh — but if you’re still trying to process the proceedings, David Oscar Markus offers five simple rules for evaluating the witnesses. [The Hill]

* Ann Althouse has some reflections on Judge Kavanaugh’s emotional testimony and “present-day conservative masculinity.” [Althouse]

* David Bernstein proffers this interesting solution to the Kavanaugh nomination situation — but don’t hold your breath for its implementation. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

* If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, “the EU is busy building a three-lane highway that leads to a particularly dark place,” according to Charles Glasser. [Daily Caller]

* Lawyer Luddites: “AI in the legal space is not scary,” as explained by David Kleiman of Bloomberg Law. [Artificial Lawyer]

* Indeed, as Greg Lambert argues, lawyers — especially “working partners” — need to join the innovation conversation. [3 Geeks and a Law Blog]

David Lat is editor at large and founding editor of Above the Law, as well as the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].