Feedback: Judicial
Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 11:14 AM
You asked one of your guests to give an example of "activism" from the bench from conservative judges. I submit to you that the Supreme Court handing the presidency to George W. Bush in 2001 is the supreme example of judicial activism from conservatives and irrevocably tainted the top judiciary in this country.
-MS
In a mature democracy, abortion just like most issues including the death penalty for example, is resolved through representative government i.e. laws and not by the interpretation of a 200 year old document…… this is insulting to the citizen male or female alike…..
-SS
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Speaking of activist judges, how about those like Justice Scalia who have written about Lawrence v. Texas and the Boy Scout cases as part of a culture war, and spout the same kind of slippery slope rhetoric used by conservative... activists? I might also note that Christian conservative groups draw in tremendous amounts of financial resources by targeting gay people and reproductive rights. Conflicts of interest cut both ways.
-BS
Was Judge Roy Moore an activist judge? Was William Pryor an activist when he defended him? How about Pickering? Was the Supreme Court being activist judges when they decided the 2000 election?
-DM
What's wrong with activist judges? Sometimes it has been necessary for the judiciary to move society forward because the legislature was unable to (think Brown v Board of Education). How long would it have taken to integrate schools if that decision was left to the Congress?
-NL
In the last debate Bush said that a judge who would oppose retention of the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance recited in schools is an "activist". It seems to me that a strict interpretation of the constitution would forbid the forced recitation of those words in public schools.
-CS
Your liberal guest's floundering in search of conservative judicial activists and your conservative guest's rather startling assertion that conservatives do not engage in judicial activism is quite puzzling. The Rehnquist Court has been in both liberal and conservative commentators' opinions the most activist court since (or even greater than) the Warren court. This is perhaps best seen in the court's New Federalism jurisprudence, where it has established an almost total sovereign immunity for the States, which finds only paltry and implied support in the Constitution and is wholly new, as well as striking down an unprecedented number of acts of Congress. Judicial Activism swings both ways, a point recently made by former (conservative) solicitor general Theodore Olsen in a talk he gave, and is really just a term applied to decisions that someone (regardless of party) does not like. I also refer you to the following article by Chicago Law Professor Cass Sunstein on the Rehnquist Court.
-MB
I wonder how many people these days think that "litmus test" is legal
terminology? Do you think that George Bush has any idea what a litmus
test really is?
-CS
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