It's always fascinating to see Wild Cobra show that he has a better working knowledge of federal courts and cons utional law than people who devote their lives to studying those things. I mean, obviously, Laurence Silberman has been a liberal wolf in conservative sheep's wool since he was appointed -- or something.
For instance, he
wrote an intermediate court opinion striking down the DC handgun ban in the appellate decision affirmed by the Supreme Court in er.
He
wrote the intermediate court opinion concluding that the independent counsel statute threatened the President's Article II powers, a conclusion that Justice Scalia vigorously defended in a dissenting opinion when Silberman's opinion was ultimately overturned.
He's close friends with
Clarence Thomas,
Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld.
He's
been openly called a partisan ("Yet Silberman’s place at the head of the commission has already raised doubts about its credibility, given that Silberman has often behaved as if his paramount role as a federal judge is to protect Republicans, persecute Democrats and slander anyone who disagrees.")
He's been regarded
"historically . . . as one of the stronger conservative voices on the federal appellate bench."
He's
not new to being labeled a staunch conservative("He is a judge who came of age at the time when conservatives were responding to the activism of the Supreme Court in the 50’s and 60’s. He is a significant member of the conservative legal world, with membership in the Federalist Society and with a record of service in the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations.")
But, clearly, his conservative bona fides are disputable.