There is a tax angle to the dust-up over the ABA’s decision yesterday to rate as "unqualified" President Bush’s nominee to the Fifth Circuit, Michael B. Wallace (A.B. Harvard; J.D. Virginia (Order of the Coif & Editor of the Virginia Law Review); Law Clerk to Justice Rehnquist).  From the New York Times:

Mr. Wallace, 54, a lawyer in Jackson, Miss., appears to be the first appeals court nominee in about 25 years to receive a unanimous rating of unqualified from the 15-member committee. He was nominated to fill the seat left open when Judge Charles W. Pickering Sr. resigned.

Mr. Wallace, a former aide to Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi, aroused the opposition of civil rights groups and Democrats on several fronts. As an aide to Mr. Lott, Mr. Wallace helped promote tax exemptions for Bob Jones University despite the institution’s segregation policies at the time.

(Hat Tip:  Kirk Stark.)