CJLF's Legal Director Kent Scheidegger has this letter to the editor in USA Today, responding to this editorial last Monday. Where the letter says "the people's right of self-government," the editors added a link to the Declaration of Independence. That was a nice touch.
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USA TODAY's editorial on judicial appointments claimed that John McCain's statements about "strict interpretation of the Constitution" and the problem of "activist" judges serve as code for supporting judges who favor conservative results. Nonsense. Whether a court decision is activist has nothing to do with which direction it leans politically.
Before 1937, the Supreme Court was activist in the conservative direction. That was just as wrong as the later liberal activism. Judges who are committed to judicial restraint are simply committed to letting the democratic process work.
Under the Constitution, a few basic traditional rights are protected from change by the legislative branch. All other questions of policy are subject to the democratic process.
McCain would appoint judges who respect civil liberty No. 1: the people's right of self-government. Obama would appoint judges who usurp the power to decide the most important questions of government.
That is the choice before the American people this November.
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