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Earlier this month, conservative law students gathered in Austin, Texas, for the Federalist Societys first National Student Symposium since the overturning of Roe. This years theme was law and democracy but the relationship between those two principles seemed more than a little unclear.

To those who have followed the Federalist Society closely since its triumphs at the Supreme Court last year, the symposiums focus on law and democracy may hardly seem incidental, writes Ian Ward, one of the few men in attendance who did not wear a suit and tie. Since its founding in 1982, the Federalist Society has championed judicial restraint, the notion that judges should limit their roles to interpreting the law as written, leaving the actual business of lawmaking to democratically elected legislatures.

That was all well and good when conservatives saw the judiciary as the domain of activist liberals, dragging the nations laws further leftward than the legislative branch had intended. But with a solid conservative majority on the Supreme Court, and a majority of the nation out of step with conservative positions on issues like abortion, that approach has come under scrutiny particularly among younger conservatives, who bear no scars from the legal losses of decades past.

As Federalist Society members consider where the movement goes from here, there was a definite sense of cognitive dissonance at the conference, where many of the panelists appeared willing to endorse the logic of anti-democratic arguments but shied away from those arguments more radical conclusions, Ward writes. For some, that means embracing a more interpretative approach to jurisprudence that the society has long opposed. As Federalist Society president and CEO Eugene Meyer put it: I think it would be fair to say theres been some movement over time more in the direction of interpreting the Constitution and less in the direction of pure judicial restraint.Law professor Josh Blackman was more forthright: The norm that judges be restrained and moderate that ship has sailed.

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Youre tired of him; what about me? I have to deal with him every day.

Can you guess who wrote this about Benjamin Netanyahu in 2011? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.**

The former vice presidents appearance at Washingtons venerable Gridiron Dinner earned a rapturous response. | Scott Olson/Getty Images

Mike Pence and a Bunch of Nerds Walk Into a Bar OK, they actually walked into the Gridiron Dinner, where the former vice president set off a much-talked-about homophobia controversy. But theres another element of his appearance worth scrutinizing, writes Michael Schaffer in this weeks Capital City column: His pointed criticism of Donald Trump came at the same time that hes resisting a subpoena that could help hold Trump accountable. And worst of all, a Washington desperate to look bipartisan in an age of stark division abandoned self-respect and ate it right up.

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank spooked markets. But dont be afraid of sounding like an idiot the next time youre dishing over kombucha in Palo Alto just follow these talking points (from POLITICOs Sam Sutton):

- If anyone asks when you heard about the bank run, just say that youre glad you unmuted WhatsApp notifications.

- No, I did not submit a bid to the FDIC for Silicon Valley Banks assets this weekend. Why would I waste my time on an offer sheet that cant fully guarantee more $150 billion of uninsured deposits?

- Where were the regulators? I mean, sure. But also, where the hell was the risk manager? Nobody in C-suite watches Powell pressers?

- When someone says that SVB could bring down the global economy, ask them why the European Central Bank raised rates by half a percentage point on Thursday.

Congresswoman Pat Schroeder (D-Colo.), who died this week at 82, at a National Organization for Women convention in July 1987. | Charles Krupa/AP Photo

Remembering a Feminist Icon Former U.S. Rep. for Colorado Pat Schroeder, the feminist pioneer who drew attention to her cause with her brand of witty straight-talk remember her saying Ronald Reagan had a Teflon-coated presidency, or that dynastic figures like George W. Bush were members of the lucky sperm club? died this week at age 82. In this retrospective on her 12 terms in Congress, Joanna Weiss explores Schroeders landmark contributions to women and American politics, like the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 and the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 as well as the work still left to be done.

The headlines this week have assured readers that a financial meltdown is not imminent while raising the alarming possibility that the opposite might be true. While wondering which headlines, exactly to trust, it is instructive to go back to the biggest meltdown of them all the Great Crash of 1929 and see how the papers handled it. Fortunately, we have this prime example for sale for $48 on eBay, a Chicago Tribune from Wednesday, October 23, 1929, which reassuringly told readers, Stock Market Will Recover, Doctors Think. It sounded great at the time. The very next day, October 24, would become known as Black Thursday, which saw the largest sell-off of shares in history and helped launch the Great Depression.

**Who Dissed answer: President Barack Obama got caught saying this on a hot mic at the G-20 Summit, along with then-President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who said of Netanyahu, I cant stand him. Hes a liar.

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Are young conservatives giving up on democracy? - POLITICO