Posted on 01/16/2015 9:10:25 PM PST by right-wing agnostic
In a recent speech, Senator Rand Paul urged an audience of conservatives to embrace judicial activism. According to Paul, judicial activism is a good thing because it advances liberty and furthers conservative goals. Legislatures do “bad things,” Paul argues, and judicial activism is helpful to stop that: Judicial activism can overturn liberal laws such as Obamacare and the employment laws at issue in Lochner v. New York.
According to Senator Paul, there is “a role for the Supreme Court to mete out justice.” As a result, he considers himself a judicial activist in debates over Locher, the New Deal in the 1930s, Brown in the 1950s, Griswold in the 1960s, and the challenge to Obamacare more recently. Paul suggests that Roe v. Wade is a tougher case for him because abortion involves a clash of rights. Senator Paul also endorses co-blogger Randy Barnett’s idea of replacing the presumption of constitutionality with a presumption of unconstitutionality (what Barnett calls the presumption of liberty). According to Paul, he doesn’t like judicial legislation but he does want judges defending his freedom.
Three brief thoughts.
First, I noted here, the phrase “judicial activism” can have several different meanings. I gather Senator Paul is mostly assuming meanings #2 and #5 from my prior list, covering the “expanding the power of the courts” sense of activism and the “striking down legislation” sense of activism.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I want 95% of federal judges FIRED without pension. This is justice and the American way. The judiciary raped america
Is he auditioning to be Hillary’s running mate?
"WELL BYE." Your 15 minutes of fame are over.
"He is dead Jim"
"He is not pining for fjords." He is bereft of life, he is no more, he has passed on to his celestial reward, this is a dead f---ing presidential run.
Rand, if we want more judicial activism we’ll vote democrat. We don’t need you.
Rand Paul, Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Chris Christie
It's tough only if you're stupid.
The right to life is the supreme individual right. It is the one right without which no other right can ever possibly be enjoyed.
Understood.
A public hack is more to the point.
I like this idea.
The courts should review laws in this frame of mind.
The US Constitution places very precise limits on the powers of congress to enact laws. The courts in the past have stretched these powers far beyond the powers envisioned by the founders.
If we are going to have activist judges it would be nice to have activism in defense of liberty for a change.
So you support Roberts’ pro-Obamacare opinion as “Constitutional”?
You should consider reading what you’re commenting on.
Rand Paul has written himself off the prospects list for pubbie review in the upcoming election cycle. Stuff like this ‘judicial activism’ admission simply seal the deal.
To your point, 2DV, he ought to simply switch to the dhimmicraps and jump on the Hildebeast bandwagon.
R. Paul’s on board with Griswold?! That was the foundation of Roe v. Wade. I am starting to think that R. Paul is either too clever, or worse than his old man, who at least had a clean sheet on states’ rights.
Son Of Paul.
‘Nuff said.
One path to more liberty is to empower juries to understand their rights to exercise justice and to help them avoid being a pliable tool of government. This is the role of the Fully Informed Jury. see http://fija.org/
The jury is really the last place in the government structure where citizens can reign in a government that has run amok. A person cannot be convicted of a crime unless and until his indictment has been voted by a Grand Jury and then at trial voted to convict by a Petite Jury.
If government passes an unjust law, citizens should not hesitate to decline to vote to indict or to convict. Where government cannot get sufficient juries to convict, unjust laws are rendered moot.
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