Here’s a thoughtful bit from Jay Nordlinger’s latest NRO “Impromptus” column:

One thing the people around John Ashcroft will tell you is that we are in an uncertain new world, and we are sort of feeling our way around, as far as rights, reactions, and protection are concerned. Those most knowledgeable about the law have the greatest sympathy for what the Justice Department is facing. Those who are ignorant simply pop off, saying that Ashcroft is ‘shredding the Constitution,’ ‘deep-sixing civil liberties,’ and so on.

This brings me to Stuart Taylor, widely regarded as the finest legal journalist in the country, a man of huge learning, experience, and discretion, once a reporter at the New York Times, now a columnist for National Journal. (That column is titled ‘Opening Argument.’)

Stuart knows as much about the law — and legal history and theory and arguments — as anyone around. He was first in his class at Harvard Law School, which I