Number 9 02360

8640 Voices

I keep hearing proponents of the 'nuclear option' asserting that they are concerned about activist judges. That what they need to do is remove, or replace, those activist judges.

They don't like the rulings these judges have made, in a variety of cases, from Schiavo to the definition of marriage, to abortion and beyond. So what they want, it seems clear, are judges that address these specific issues, that will make rulings that they approve of on these specific issues.

But the question arises, is that not a textbook definition of 'activist judges'?

It's amazing: you can go to C-Span and see some of the same judges who were filibustered last year, making the same specious argument. In thirty years, after the rise and fall of these so-called 'constitutionalists', a new generation can look at the films and say, 'my god, how did this happen: they said what they were going to do, and they did it. And nobody stopped them'.

History, by one definition, is reality repeated for those who weren't paying attention the first time.