David Strauss can't bring himself to call his friend and former University of Chicago Law School colleague "Barack" any more.

"I think the President really is not an old-fashioned, civil-rights-era liberal," said Strauss, the Gerald Ratner Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago Law School (must make for a long business card).

I nudged nudged Strauss into playing a popular parlour game: the Supremes Sweepstakes, or speculating about filling a Supreme Court vacancy. And though a lousy economy leaves less leisure time to so amuse oneself, the retirement of Justice David Souter inspires resumption of this mostly indoor sport.

Rather than check with Las Vegas oddsmakers, it seemed more useful to track down Hyde Park heavyweights, namely folks at the law school where Barack, ah, President Obama taught.

Read more at The Atlantic