The nominee to be the next justice of the Supreme Court has no opinion on anything. Well, that’s not entirely true. She did believe in providing free coffee for students when she was dean of Harvard Law School. She once publicly protested against the ban on honest homosexuals serving in the US military — but that is genuinely the only controversial statement she has ever made in public.

How do such people exist? Well, the truth is they have existed on the career ladder for the US Supreme Court since Robert Bork was crucified by the Senate when Ronald Reagan nominated him. Bork had written on everything, had opinions on everything and was a thoroughly interesting, even riveting, intellectual character. He was done in by the radicalism of his views on the limits of judicial power — and even, in some part, because of his religious agnosticism. It was a spectacle almost as ugly as Bork himself. And ever since, every judicial nominee has maintained an almost comic poker face when describing their views and opinions in front of the senators, who have the power to consent (or not) to their appointment.

But it is fair to say that... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/arti...