1. Legal-left interest groups often portray conservative federal judges as ideologues and GOP diehards. And there are some of those; the Trump admin is been clear that it's targeting those qualities in its nominees.

2. The picture is more complicated than many on the left often acknowledge, though. Yes, there are some cynical partisans in the Alito mold. But if you read a lot of opinions and listen to a lot of oral arguments, you find a lot of real judging by smart conservative judges.

3. Take, for example, Third Circuit Judge Kent Jordan. He's quite conservative. GWB nominee, FedSoc presenter, voted w the conservatives in CA3's big 2A en banc, once said the 1st thing he'd do is show Chevron the door (the deference doctrine, not the company). No moderate.

4. But here's what you wouldn't realize if all your judiciary insight came from the twitter: Judge Jordan is a splendid judge. Splendid. He's smart, careful, a terrific writer, and judicial to the core. A diligent seeker of correct case resolutions.

5. Whenever I advise a lawyer prepping for a CA3 OA with Jordan, I tell them he's likely to grasp the weaknesses of their case at least as well as they do, and to fire one fastball after another. But don't despair, I say, because he's about to do the same thing to the other side.

[6. Disclosure detour: I have an appeal pending in front of a panel with Judge Jordan on it. Lest you think I'm trying to curry favor here (I'm not), let me tell you about the time I met Judge Jordan.

7. I introduced myself to him at a 3CBA reception a year or two ago and got a polite blank smile. I made a self-deprecating joke about my blog and the smile stayed just as polite and just as blank. Suffice to say I'm confident he's not following my twitter musings.]

8. Now there's only one Judge Jordan, but there are lots and lots of federal judges who are both mighty conservative and mighty fine judges.

9. The notion that every GOP-nominated judge is a hack, or event that every judge nominated by Trump is a "Trump judge," is both corrosive and inaccurate.

10. Maybe Severino and Davis and their ilk would never say the same about liberal judges, but so what? If serious people can't muster more integrity than they do, we're all sunk.