Judicial Activism

‘Judicial activism’ is a fancy phrase for a very plain thing. When the law says ‘A’ and the judge wants it to mean ‘Z’ he “interprets” it as meaning 'Z'. Deep thinkers may call that “judicial activism”. Back where I come from, we call that lying. Judges don’t just twist and stretch the law for fun, usually they do it to support some article of faith in the liberal creed. That’s what wins them the support of the media and academia. Attempts to justify judicial activism are very complicated and very clever, but they boil down to the kind of excuses any parent of a small child should be used to hearing.


- Thomas Sowell