All Posts Tagged With: "judicial activism"
Judicial Activism and Parental Rights
The charge of judicial activism seems to be more the product of disliking the outcome than of any real principle of constitutional interpretation.
10Mar2011 | Steven Horwitz | 9 comments | ContinuedRace & Liberty in America: The Essential Reader / Dred Scott’s Revenge: A Legal History of Race and Freedom in America
Two recent books criticize racial discrimination from a classical-liberal perspective. The first, Race & Liberty in America, is an anthology edited by Jonathan Bean, a professor of history at Southern Illinois University. It includes dozens of selections, from 1776 to today, arguing eloquently for colorblind equality before the law and against slavery, Jim Crow, and [...]
20May2010 | Roger Clegg | 3 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – June 2008
David’s Hammer: The Case for an Activist Judiciary by Clint Bolick Cato Institute • 2007 • 177 pages • $11.95 paperback Reviewed by George C. Leef In recent years “judicial activism” has been assailed from both ends of the political spectrum. Conservatives complain about “liberal” activism when courts strike down laws they favor, and “liberals” [...]
1Jun2008 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedТhe Second Bill of Rights: FDR’s Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need It More Than Ever
The problem with the American welfare state, according to Cass Sunstein, is that it is too small. In this book the widely respected University of Chicago law professor argues that the federal government should guarantee Americans a broad range of “economic rights.” Sunstein organizes the book around the story of Franklin Roosevelt’s 1944 State of [...]
14Dec2005 | Michael DeBow | 1 comment | ContinuedA Popular Insurrection on Property Rights
The property rights issues that arise constantly in
modern life are always difficult and often
obscure. Most ordinary people understand the
importance of zoning restrictions and environmental
protection in their daily lives.They are also keenly aware
that the state exercises its eminent domain power whenever
it condemns land for a post office or a public highway.
But in general they rightly feel a little intimidated
if asked to understand the inner workings of a legal system
that is dominated at every turn by an impenetrable
jargon that even trained lawyers find it
hard to manipulate.
Why Classical Liberals Care about the Rule of Law (And Hardly Anyone Else Does)
In 1776 John Adams declared that America was “a
nation of laws, not men.” Politicians of all persuasions
have used Adams’s phrase ever since to claim
the moral high ground. Such rare agreement among the
political classes, even if only rhetorical, is an indication
of the power of the idea of the rule of law.
Reckless Legislation: How Lawmakers Ignore the Constitution by Michael A. Bamberger
Rutgers University Press · 2000 · 224 pages · $32.00 Reviewed by George C. Leef Legislators have been enacting laws that trample on constitutional rights for a long time. The United States had barely entered the nineteenth century when Congress gave us the Alien and Sedition Acts, for example, a blatant attack on the right [...]
1Oct2001 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedA Constitutional Counterrevolution
Charlotte Twight is a professor of economics at Boise State University. She is the author of Dependent on D.C.: The Rise of Federal Control Over the Lives of Ordinary Americans. Given America’s carefully crafted constitutional restrictions on central government power, how is it that intrusive federal powers over the lives of ordinary Americans took root [...]
1Oct2000 | Charlotte A. Twight | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Quest for Cosmic Justice
The Quest for Cosmic Justice offers no big surprises to anyone familiar with Sowell’s work. Its theme of arrogant elites’ tyrannizing ordinary folk has sounded prominently in Sowell’s writings since at least the late 1970s. But the book percolates throughout with ingenious smaller-scale insights that make it well worth reading. By “cosmic justice” Sowell means [...]
1Jul2000 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedJudges versus Majorities versus Peaceful People
By the time Ronald Reagan was first elected President, conservatives had grown intensely concerned about “judicial activism.” After nearly thirty years of the likes of Earl Warren and William Brennan attempting from the bench to re-engineer society in a leftist image, conservatives were understandably angry. A premier goal for many conservatives became filling the federal [...]
1Mar1998 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedA Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and The Law by Antonin Scalia
Princeton University Press • 997 • 159 pages • $19.95 Jürgen Skoppek is a magistrate on Michigan’s Workers’ Compensation Appellate Commission and holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School. The fate of our liberties no longer rests in the hands of the voting public, elected legislators, or executive-branch officials. Whatever liberties we are permitted to [...]
1Jan1998 | Jrgen Skoppek | 0 comments | ContinuedTV Taxes
Christmas arrived early for TV broadcasters this year. Way back in March the federal government played Santa Claus. Over a four-day period, from March 31 to April 3, Washington gave away the proverbial store to the nation’s over-the-air television broadcasters. A major step by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)—taken per a Democratic White House and [...]
1Nov1997 | Raymond J. Keating | 2 comments | Continued-
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