Judge Sotomayor, the GOP, and Judicial Activism
May 26, 2009
Although Sonia Sotomayor is a fine choice to fill Justice Souter’s seat on the Supreme Court, the Republican die-hards are bound to raise the red herring of her being dangerous because she is an “activist” judge. It is past time that this canard were put to rest. The truth is that all judges are activist judges. If the law were crystal clear in its application to concrete cases, we would not need judges to interpret it. The Republicans’ use of the term “activist” in a pejorative sense is of a piece with their tendency (which has succeeded with a gullible public and press) to take a designation that should be laudatory and make it seem disreputable.
When they call a judge activist, they mean no more than that the judge ruled in a way of which they do not approve. They do not call the equally activist right wing judges activist, because theirs is an activism with which the GOP agrees.
That anyone still gives credence to the sophistic rhetoric of the Republicans is astonishing.
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