ABSTRACT
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, which caused the deaths of 3,000 Americans, including 400 police and fire-fighters, dramatically transformed the nation's politics, economy, law, and foreign policy. For a beleaguered President Bush, whose popularity sank because of his inept response to Katrina, the Supreme Court vacancy provided a perfect chance to reshape constitutional law even as he lost influence over other aspects of domestic policy. A close Bush ally in the private sector, the American Enterprise Institute, received funding from oil companies as it attacked the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) work and offered funds to researchers who would undermine the argument that emissions from coal caused global warming. In January 2002 State of the Union address, Bush declared that Iraq, Iran, and communist North Korea composed an 'axis of evil', apparently in part because all three seemed bent on building weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
