Hoosier lore

After Chief Justice John Roberts said, in his speech at the IU school of law, that it's harder for the Supreme Court to reach consensus than it is for Congress, where compromise comes with the job. "In effect," the columnist noted, Roberts implied that "on some decisions a justice is conservative or liberal, and there isn't a lot of middle ground." Then he hunted up the dean of the law school, Gary Roberts, to ask him what makes people liberal or conservative:

During his confirmation hearings, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said, naively, that we wanted to build consensus on the court. After his speech at the Indiana University School of Law Wednesday, he was asked about that, in light of the fact that about one-third of the court's rulings last term were decided 5-4:

Roberts responded that justices differing in their interpretations of law cannot act like lawmakers and strike compromises halfway.

Evan Bayh takes a final courageous stand on a tough issue before leaving office:

"My heartfelt congratulations go out to Butler University, Coach Brad Stevens, all the players and the entire Butler family on a historic season and a magical run through the NCAA tournament," said Bayh.

The Indiana Court of Appeals has ordered a new trial for an African-American convicted on drug charges, saying that prosecutors discriminated in at least one instance when they struck all blacks from a panel of jurors. At issue were statements by three jurors, one black and two white, showing they misunderstood the burden of proof faced by the state:

In at least one instance, the judges said, the reason given for striking a black from the panel applied equally to two white jurors who were allowed to serve.

Some students at the Indiana University Mauer School of Law apparently resent an e-mail sent out by the Dean of Students urging students to exercise good judgment on a planned "pub crawl," for example by drinking "a full glass of water between the two or three beers you will have":

A few points:

* Two or three beers? That's an appropriate limit for NASCAR drivers, but not crawling, pedestrian law students.

Well, Butler lost, so let's pick on Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Our editorial page disagrees with The Indianapolis Star's about the appropriateness of state Attorny General Greg Zoeller's decision to add Indiana to the 13 other states challenging the constitutionality of health care reform.

The Star editorial's headline says the suit is "tainted by politics," but the body of the piece acknowledges that the law's requirement that individuals buy insurance or face a tax penalty "appears to be unprecedented" and is "at the very least worth questioning." So, it's tainted by politics but raises a valid point? How to get out of that dilemma?

How can you not read a story with the headline "Police: man gets rowdy with bicycle pump"? The man in question, Brandon Greer, allegedly tore his and his roommate's room apart and socked the roommate on the chin, prompting the roommate to call police:

Indiana isn't exactly a voter-friendly state. We don't even have a registration deadline reasonably close to Election Day, let alone the ability to register on the same day as voters can in some states. If you're not registered by the end of the business day on Monday, tough luck. Here's the Secretary of State's site with a link to the registration form. You can fill it in, print it and mail it in, but it has to be postmarked by Monday.

Speaking of the Senate race, an article in The American Spectator says Brad Ellsworth's Senate candidacy will be an important test: "Does Rahm Emanuel's strategy for turning red states blue still work in 2010 -- or has Rahm's boss turned those states red again?" In 2006, when George W. Bush's approval ratings had tanked, the GOP's reputation was in tatters and the war in Iraq was immensely unpopular, Ellsworth ran for the House as a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, anti-illegal immigration Democrat.