I sympathize with the commenters who affected shock, but I really am quite convinced that Eugene Volokh is a nice, intelligent person whom, if I met him in real life, I would like. This may be based on class solidarity. He is a smarty-pants law professor, and I like smarty-pants law professors. I happen to know two other former Supreme Court clerks living in Southern California who are nominal Republicans (these people also know Prof. Volokh and vouch for his character). Despite being Republicans, they are both nice people, and not just in the “he always seemed like such a nice boy” fashion of the opinion of the serial killer’s elderly neighbor, but the real-life type of nice person. [click to continue…]