Some will recognize my reference to Machiavelli’s Prince. I haven’t read the opinions in Gonzales v. Carhart yet–and the ruling is unquestionably good news for which I am profoundly grateful–but there is something wrong when we wait with bated breath for the decision of one Supreme Court justice on a question of such importance. Justice Kennedy did what any reader of his dissent in the last such case (seven years ago) would have expected him to do. But the struggle for the heart and mind of Anthony Kennedy feels sometimes like the punishment of Sisyphus–and one never knows when one’s grip on the boulder will give way. Today persistence paid off. Next time, who knows? Sorry for the sour note on a happy occasion . . .