Federalist Society Lawyer's Division Conference:

I hope to see some of our readers — and some of my cobloggers — at the Federalist Society Lawyer's Division Conference in Washington, D.C. (at the Mayflower Hotel) late this week. I'll be there at the Thursday night event and most of the day Friday; I'm sorry that I'll be missing the Saturday events, which also sound great.

From 12 to 1 pm Friday, I'll be on the Free Speech & Election Law panel on Restricting Parental Speech; Judge Michael McConnell, who is one of the nation's two or three top Religion Clauses scholars, will be moderating, and Prof. James Dwyer and Jay Sekulow will be on the panel as well. Co-Conspirators Randy Barnett and Jim Lindgren will be on the Is America Different from Other Major Western Democracies? panel on Friday from 3:15 to 5.

UPDATE: A commenter writes, "I do see that not every single person listed as a panelist is unequivocally of the Federalist persuasion, e.g., a former professor of mine, David Vladek of Georgetown, who is or was Public Citizen's very smart counsel. But it doesn't look like there are many middle-of-the-road, let alone left-leaning types, among them."

Well, try Gordon Wood, Jamie Gorelick, Kent Greenawalt, Deborah Greenfield, Judge Stephen Reinhardt, James Dwyer, Alex Aleinikoff, Akhil Amar, Vicki Jackson, Martha Davis, Shubha Ghosh, Neal Katyal, and Nadine Strossen; possibly also Robert Audi; and David Vladeck, whom the commenter mentioned. Marci Hamilton is conservative on some things, but on the topic that she was invited to discuss she's pretty far from where most conservatives (and likely most libertarians) are. I'm sure there are other liberals and moderates, but these are just the ones I could quickly spot.

Federalist Society conferences are known for having people on both sides of the question (and usually on more than two sides). This is certainly no exception.