June 15, 2008

Or government in exile. Or government in waiting. Or, I hear you knockin', but you can't come in. From Politico, " A new day for liberal legal group?"

Eight years after the Clintonite legal elite were cast out to the wilds of academia and white-collar private practice by Bush v. Gore, a new optimism was on display at the eighth annual national convention of the American Constitution Society, which convened a host of law professors, lawyers and judges -- many of them former Clinton administration officials -- at the D.C. Hyatt Regency over the past three days.

This year's keynote speaker was Eric Holder, a co-chair of Barack Obama's campaign, a member of his vice presidential search committee and the cover subject of the current issue of The American Lawyer, whose headline asks, "Is he the next AG?"

"With this new administration that will be taking its place in January of 2009, we're going to be looking for people who share our values, and I suspect those people are here today," Holder told the receptive crowd.

Reports and videos on the conference's events are available at the ACS blog.

The prepared text of Sen. Leahy's remarks is available here; he speaks at length on federal pre-emption issues, including the FDA case, Wyeth v. Levine (background information at the ScotusWiki here.)

More on Holder's remarks here. Also, Judge Kozinski was supposed to be a panelist at the ACS event, but he did not show.