The New York Times reports that Catholic University Law School Dean Doug Kmiec is being considered for an appointment to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Doug is a very thoughtful scholar, and this would be a fine choice. But he is a scholar who may excite the left, for he has written about natural law theory, which the Times notes toward the end of the column. The left is of course wildly inconsistent about this: for example, Laurence Tribe skewered Bork for not subscribing to natural law theory, and then went after Justice Thomas for subscribing to the theory. The Times brought out the ultimate boogeyman, suggesting that the natural law could be used to overturn Roe v. Wade--a question that Kmiec can almost certainly anticipate.

The Senate debate over natural law was somewhat short-circuited in the Thomas hearings because of the scurrilous charges of Ms. Hill. With Dean Kmiec, we may see a fuller debate of these issues.