Clarence Thomas: He's the Chief Activist Judge!
Supreme Court nerds should give this lengthy SCOTUSblog run-down on the term a serious read. Most notable to me: "Although some cases are decided five to four, that’s no more than twenty percent of the docket this Term (we’re running the final numbers now). Roughly half the decisions are nine to zero. Only slightly more than one in ten cases involved the narrow liberal-conservative divide (fewer, if we don’t include cases in which we presume Justice Sotomayor would have voted with the left had she not been recused)… Among all the Justices, it is in fact Scalia and Thomas—frequently heralded by conservatives as ideal members of the Court—who hesitate the least in invalidating legislation or (with respect to Thomas) calling for the overruling of prior precedent…. Just as fascinating is Justice Thomas’s openness to reconsidering almost every issue in the law that he views as wrongly decided. This Term, he wrote eight separate opinions suggesting the reconsideration of existing law."
According to the GOP and Fox News, "Activist" only means overturning legislation passed by a Republican congress. When Thomas and Scalia's crew throw out a few laws to make up their rulings, most importantly the ones that discount States Rights or Rights of individuals, it's all fair play.
That being said, this coded Conservative talking point needs to die.
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