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Moving TargetsThe solicitor general is the latest target in the showdown over guns.

By Dahlia Lithwick
Posted Friday, March 14, 2008, at 6:57 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

Finally, Novak throws in the tidbit that Clement's wishy-washy brief in Heller was an effort to co-opt the wishy-washy Anthony Kennedy, "the Supreme Court's current swing vote." This column is not merely an attempt to bully Clement into changing his position at argument next week; it's another effort to browbeat Kennedy back into line as well. It's a signal to those folks unwilling to cede an inch on gun rights that if they don't get everything they want from the Supreme Court in June, Clement and Kennedy will be the ones to blame.

For all the talk we've been hearing about the "unitary executive" in recent years, this is the first time in anyone's memory that two different representatives are currently purporting to speak for the president in court. Rather than attempting to discredit one speaker or the other at the last minute, we should recognize them for what they are: The president speaking out of both sides of his mouth on gun rights.

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Dahlia Lithwick is a Slate senior editor.
Photograph of Robert Novak by Alex Wong/Getty Images for Meet the Press.
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