Reply To: Political Statements
I’ve always thought the term “activist judge” was a little lame. An “activist judge” as near as I can tell, is what you call a judge who interprets the law in a way you don’t like. If you like a law and they strike it down, then they’re “activist”. Or if they read the Constitution and see a right implied in there that you don’t think is there, then they’re “activist”.
JoAnn — when the Supreme Court recently decided that the 2nd Amendment protected a personal right to own a firearm (as opposed to only state militias having that right), which went against the body of settled opinion (most specifically, United States v. Miller) that said that that right wasn’t in there, were they being activist? I don’t remember Rush Limbaugh getting too upset about that one, although it was clearly a case of the judges striking down a law in Washington D.C. that the people had enacted (hence, “activist”).
(this Slate.com article does a great job of explaining the issue)