The Lonely Goatherd Blog And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats - Matthew 25:32
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Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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All original content on MoreThings.com copyright 2008 Albert Barger or the respective authors
June 11, 2007
Judicial Activism Can Cut Both Ways "When a strict interpretation of the Constitution, according to the fixed rules which govern the interpretation of laws, is abandoned, and the theoretical opinions of individuals are allowed to control its meaning, we no longer have a Constitution; we are under the government of individual men, who for the time being have power to declare what the Constitution is according to their own views of what it ought to mean." - Supreme Court Justice Benjamin R Curtis, from his dissent against the infamous 1856 Dred Scott decision.
He left the court shortly after this decision, apparently the only time ever that a Supreme Court justice has resigned on a matter of principle. This was a brilliant and simple explanation of the most basic argument for what might be broadly called judicial conservatism. In 1868, he served as President Andrew Johnson's lead defense attorney during the impeachment proceedings.
Special note to modern liberals who favor judicial fiat such as Roe v Wade: The particulars of the Dred Scott context of Justice Curtis' statement should give you pause to consider that if judges get to make stuff up to suit their higher ideals, that can cut in all different directions down the road that you might not like so good.
"When a strict interpretation of the Constitution, according to the fixed rules which govern the interpretation of laws, is abandoned, and the theoretical opinions of individuals are allowed to control its meaning, we no longer have a Constitution; we are under the government of individual men, who for the time being have power to declare what the Constitution is according to their own views of what it ought to mean." - Supreme Court Justice Benjamin R Curtis, from his dissent against the infamous 1856