Evan Thomas and Stuart Taylor Jr. offer the following unattributed assertion in their Newsweek article on U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens? pending retirement:

It is fair to say that by giving real meaning to constitutional rights, the Warren court moved the country to the left.

While the Warren Court certainly moved Supreme Court decisions to the left, it?s ?fair to say? ? as Thomas and Taylor say themselves in the next paragraph of their article ? ?the nation as a whole moved slightly right of center? after the Warren Court’s unprecedented decisions.

What disturbs me more than the left-right business, though, is the bald assertion that activist judges deviating from the Constitution gave rights ?real meaning.?

If you believe Thomas and Taylor, perhaps you ought to read William Mellor and Robert Levy?s book, The Dirty Dozen. Mellor and Levy describe the ?real? impact of bad decisions from activist judges.

Mellor discussed the book for a John Locke Foundation audience and for Carolina Journal Radio in 2008: