WHOSE ORIGINALISM?
Many conservatives have long been busy waving around the term “judicial activism” with regard to jurists whom they perceive as liberal. Now liberals have begun to do the same with regard to the Roberts court.
This week, the president tried to clarify the term himself when talking to a group of press pool types on Air Force One. But what he meant with his ad hoc speech on the topic has been open to much interpretation.
In response, the NY Times’ Meg Greenhouse takes a swing at the entire concept—and what President Obama really said if one was listening closely.
Here’s how she begins:
Used as an epithet, “activist judge” is almost always applied to a judge who has just issued a decision that the speaker doesn’t like. Conservatives affix the label to the Supreme Court of the 1960’s and 1970’s, as well as to anything they object to about the current court. The ink on Justice John Paul Stevens’s letter of resignation last month was barely dry before conservative political candidates and bloggers lined up to bid good riddance to “the liberal activist now leaving the court.”
Exactly what the conservatives’ beef was with Justice Stevens wasn’t clear. Presumably, it was something other than the Stevens majority opinion in Kelo v. City of New London, the 2005 decision that left democratically elected local governments free to condemn private property for the purpose of economic development.
Progressives, of course, have been having a field day denouncing the Roberts court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which opened the door to unlimited political spending by corporations and overturned recent precedents in order to reach that result. The ruling was “an astounding example of judicial activism,” according to Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat who in his capacity as chairman of the subcommittee on the Constitution promptly convened a hearing on the decision’s implications.
Into this linguistic and jurisprudential thicket has stepped the former constitutional law professor Barack Obama, in a conversation with the pool reporters traveling with him on Air Force One last week. Asked whether he would use the pending Supreme Court nomination to push back against “conservative judicial activism,” the president responded with a 200-word soliloquy so densely packed as to lend itself to a variety of interpretations — and misinterpretations….
With a new Supreme Court appointment on the horizon, it is worth reading on.
NOTE: GOT TIED UP ON A PROJECT. MORE POSTING LATER TODAY.
From the ACLU website
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Changes Anti-Bias Training in Racial Profiling Settlement
Monday, February 2, 2009
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has condemned the practice of racial profiling and agreed to promptly revise its anti-bias instruction to officers, expand diversity training and develop community outreach programs as part of a settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
The settlement resolves a claim brought against the department for stopping and searching dozens of African-American community college students based on their race during an incident on the campus of Los Angeles Trade Technical College in October 2007.
Sure. Lets keep going on and on about AZ.
When will we come to our senses and just open the border? We can handle it. Our economy will bloom with all the undocumented workers buying stuff and paying sales tax. The economies in every municipality that has a large population of undocumented workers proves that it is a boon for the economy. These municipalities are doing great. We don’t ever have to hang out the “No Vacancy” sign. We can handle it.
Lets get these people out of the shadows and allow them their dignity. They are human beings too. They just want a better life. If you lived in Mexico, you would want to get out of there too. Why are all the racists trying to keep fellow human beings from bettering their lives because of the color of their skin?
Give them a union job and benefits. Pay them a living wage.
Let them all come. This stuff about our economy not being able to handle it is just veiled racism.
All you have to do is check the numbers. They prove that the areas with large populations of undocumented people are flourishing.
Stop the hating.
Hey, ATQ, don’t these comments belong on another thread?
Celeste,
Comment #1, guilty as charged. Sorry.
Comment #2, I promise you you’re going to have one party claiming judicial activism after the SCOTUS renders it’s verdict on the AZ bill.