In a story in today’s New York Times about Judge Alito’s pattern of dissents, intrepid reporters Adam Liptak and Jonathan D. Glater return from an expedition into the wilderness of scholarship with this astounding finding, no doubt one of the breakthrough discoveries of my colleagues in the discipline of political science:

“Academic studies of dissenting opinions generally predict that judges appointed by Republican presidents will dissent more often in cases in which both of the other judges on three-judge panels were appointed by Democratic presidents.”

Darn it, if I had just thought to investigate this intriguing possibility, I might have published an article in the American Political Science Review by now. Another lost opportunity to be a star researcher . . .