Two weeks ago, Quin Hillyer had a fine essay defending Judge Pryor against ridiculous claims that he would be a judicial activist in favor of LGBT rights and against religious liberty. More recently, former Attorney General Ed Meese and, here on NRO, John Malcolm have weighed in similarly. (I am not asserting that the rulings of Pryor’s that are being contested can’t reasonably be subjected to criticism; I’ll limit myself here to the proposition that they don’t support the wild extrapolations that some critics are making.)

As Hillyer explains in another piece, it appears that some conservative supporters of Alabama chief justice Roy Moore really have it in for Pryor because of actions he took against Moore some years ago. If so, they should make their case on those grounds.

While I’m at it, I’ll note that in calling attention to the fact that one of the (rumored) leading contenders for the Supreme Court vacancy, Neil Gorsuch, is an NRO author, I overlooked the fact that Judge Pryor also is.