IT is no secret that the current Supreme Court is an activist one in striking down congressional legislation — just look at the prominent cases from the court’s just-completed term, most notably Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, in which a 5-4 majority of the court’s more conservative justices struck down key provisions of Congress’s bipartisan campaign finance laws.
But “activism” can be measured in ways other than striking down legislation. Indeed, this term’s leading cases highlight another type of Supreme Court activism that hasn’t received much attention: vigorously policing and overturning district court judges who ordinarily would have much more leeway — particularly when those judges had used that leeway in a liberal direction.
Conservatives use "activism" as an attack on liberals, hiding behind false claims of governing from the bench and, even more bogus, claiming they are protecting the Constitution.
Once again, it's say one thing, do the opposite for the conservatives. The Roberts Supreme court are no longer content to just rewrite legislation, they want to second guess the lower courts. Checks and balances and transparency are not a strength for the Right.
"This kind of activism is lower profile than overturning Congressional legislation, since it’s internal to the judiciary itself. But it should get more attention than it has, because it is another important way the current Supreme Court is using its power to shape and restrict government decisions." - Paul Gewirtz, Yale Law School
No comments:
Post a Comment