When I launched this blog almost a year and a half ago, I cautiously set it so that posts and comments would not be indexed on search engines.  I made this decision to minimize the risk of the blog generating endless off-point political back and forth comments, and to encourage thoughtful participation in the comments section.

Looking back, I have realized that I may have exaggerated both the risk of such back and forth, and the extent to which indexing might have discouraged commenting.  It also appears to me that my writing on the blog is already reaching a broader audience that my articles in traditional media.

So, effective April 29, I plan to turn on indexing for search engines.  If, as seems unlikely to me, anyone would prefer that I remove any comment or material that came from them on this blog before then, I will be happy to do so.

I do, of course, reserve the right to reverse this decision if we find that there are more problems than anticipated.  I will continue to monitor all comments before they are posted, and will enforce a policy against gratuitous, repetitive or conclusory posting that is not on point to the focus of this blog, access to justice.

It will be interesting to see what happens, and I will report on it.