I’ve been heartened by a number of court decisions lately:

• Striking down mechanical racism by public colleges in the Michigan case (although vague racism is still allowed???)
• Striking down anti-sodomy laws in the Lawrence v. Texas case.
• The mild sentence in the horrible Ed Rosenthal case.
• Microsoft relieved of having to carry Sun’s Java.

I think there are a few more that aren’t springing to mind.

On the Lawrence case I’m somewhat ambivalent.

I’m happy to see the Constitution interpreted so as to include private sexual behavior under protected liberties, but I’m not sure I like the Court changing the interpretations that were intended by the authors. I like the outcome when this leads to more individual liberty, but I don’t like it when it leads to New Dealish expansion of government.

So, I sympathise with Clarence Thomas who voted against the Lawrence decision on strict constructionist grounds. He personally opposed the anti-sodomy laws.

But I have trouble sympathizing with Scalia who is worried about anti-masturbation laws. I know he’s a darling of conservatives. He might be a legal genius, but he seems to be a moral idiot.