If there was one thing I thought nearly all Supreme Court-watchers could agree on, it was that the two newest Justices were exactly as we expected them to be: very competent, writing solid opinions, leaning conservative but willing to vote for the other side when the law so requires. Justice Alito's first opinion for the Court, for example, was a unanimous reversal for a South Carolina murderer. So along comes Senator Edward Kennedy, with an op-ed in the Washington Post titled "Roberts and Alito Misled Us." For comments on his comments, see Bench Memos here and the Volokh Conspiracy here.

Morris Hoffman and Stephen Morse have this thoughtful piece in the New York Times on the insanity defense. They note that the concept of responsibility is a moral judgment, not a scientific one, and that the insanity defense should be narrow but not eliminated altogether.