Activist Judges Make the U.S.A an Oligarchy

While there are many controversies over particular aspects of the law, the most fundamental controversy has long been over who should control the law and who should change the law.  American intellectuals, since at least the middle of the twentieth century, have overwhelmingly favored expansion of the role of judges, beyond that of applying laws created by others, to themselves remaking the law to “fit the times” - which is to say, making the law fit the prevailing vision of the times, the vision of the anointed intellectuals.

Where the Constitution of the United States is a barrier to this expanded role of judges, then judges have been urged to “interpret” the Constitution as a set of values to be applied as judges choose, or updated as they think appropriate, rather than as a set of specific instructions to be followed.  That is what “judicial activism” means, though verbal virtuosity has managed to confuse that meaning with other meanings.

Thomas Sowell, Intellectuals and Society, p.254