Every Justice is a 'Judicial Activist' -- Right-Wingers Just Don't Like the Ones Who Don't Agree with Them

Conservatives interpret the Constitution to support conservative objectives, but they won't admit it.

In 1787, writing in the Federalist Papers in support of state ratification of the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton argued that the proposed Supreme Court "will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the constitution." As for judicial activism, "contraventions of the will of the legislature may now and then happen; but they can never be as extensive as to affect the order of the political system."

In 2010, as the Supreme Court convenes for a new term, liberals, conservatives and independents all agree that Hamilton's prophecy was wildly off the mark. Conservatives blame liberals for his errancy. They argue that judicial restraint would be the norm but for the hijacking of the Court liberals' "judicial activists."

Liberals, as usual, react defensively. During the Ellen Kagan confirmation hearings, President Obama, a former professor of constitutional law, once again confirmed Robert Frost's characterization of a liberal as someone so broadminded he won't take his own side in an argument, when Obama described an activist judge as an anomaly. "(S)omebody who ignored the will of Congress, ignored democratic process and tried to impose judicial solutions on problems instead of letting the process work itself through politically." He added, "And in the '60s and '70s liberals were guilty of that kind of approach. What you're now seeing, I think, is a conservative jurisprudence that oftentimes makes the same error. The concept of judicial restraint cuts both ways."

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