On Judicial Activism

I wrote this some time ago, and you can tell by the Terri Schievo mention. I've always hated any activist who abhors activism.


Conservatives are fond of saying that they abhor "activist judges."
They mainly rail against activist courts and activist judges that, in
their words, legislate from the bench. In typical conservative fashion,
what is said is not exactly what is actually meant. From a conservative
standpoint, judges should not poke their noses into matters that have
already been decided. Yet conservatives have no problem with judicial
activism if it is in their favor. The judicial activism that made
George W. Bush President does not raise the ire of conservatives the
least bit. Many backers within the conservative movement would love for
judges to become activist and reinsert the feeding tube of Terri
Schievo. If the Supreme Court decided tomorrow that abortion was to be
banned, nary a conservative would be crowing about judicial activism,
they would be praising it. The reality of the situation is that
conservatives don't have a problem with activist judges; they have a
problem with anyone disagreeing with their deeply held beliefs. Whether
or not their beliefs are the least bit constitutional does not seem to
register. This is much the same as their view of the media. Alleged
liberal bias in the media is horrible, but the sixth grade crush Fox News
has with the Bush administration is no problem in any way.
Conservatives should be wary though. They are starting to sound just
like the Democrats of the 1980's, and we all know what happened to them.