Thoughts on Harold Koh’s Nomination

As a Yalie, my views on Harold Koh are clearly influenced by the admiration and respect that he commands on campus.  I think there is a good case that Harold Koh’s stated views on foreign jurisprudence are significantly outside the mainstream so as to be concerning to conservatives.  I also think it really doesn’t matter.  He’s going to be a judicial activist, and to be honest, I’d prefer my judicial activists to base their decision upon concrete international laws and treaties than to vague penumbras and multipronged tests.

Koh is, right now, merely the symbol of the brewing fight between strict constructionists and liberal activist judges (here, I use “liberal activist” not as an epithet but merely to distinguish from the less common conservative activism – which is not implausible)