Lately, a number of pontificating leftists (including Senator Charles Schumer) have been complaining about the “conservatism” of the Supreme Court. The complaint is that the Court is “out of balance” and that the justices aren’t respecting the precedents of previous decisions that tilted toward giving the state power power. There is even talk of a new “Court packing” scheme, reprising FDR’s threats of 1937.
Doug Bandow comments on all of this here. He finds nothing but hypocrisy here, since the leftists only like precedents that serve their interests.
The fundamental problem is this: the Constitution is a document designed to put limits on the powers of government, but the left wants to constantly increase government power. Bandow absolutely nails it when he says, “Once the official meaning of law is cut loose from what its specific provisions were originally expected to mean, the only restraint on judges is their personal temperament. If the Constitution means what judges say it does, it means nothing at all. A court that can eviscerate the property takings clause, for instance, can eviscerate the First Amendment guarantees for free speech and religious liberty, and the Fourth Amendment’s bar on unreasonable searches and seizures.”
A piece well worth reading.
