Obama derides *conservative* activist judges

[Betty Karlson]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/28/obama-supreme-court-warni_n_556317.html

Thank you, Mr Obama, for emphasizing that "conservatives" (in the non-Burkean sense) can commit judicial activism as well as "progressives" - and that deference is the mot-du-jour for you in picking the next Supreme Justice.

Just one remark: when the executive and legislative powers fail to lead the nation (for whatever reason), people will try to enforce change through the third power - that is, through the courts. Judicial activism is not just caused by judges with a lack of deference to the decisions legislatures make. Is is just and much, and maybe even more, a symptom of a failing democracy.

With the GOP using every procedural rule in their power to gridlock the legislative process, with some Democratic senators too prone to yield to corporations' pressure, with large parts of the American electorate feeling ill-represented, with your predecessor's heritage of almost unlimited and partly unchecked powers, with public NET disapproval for the entire congress skyrocketing, and so forth

Please consider that the judicial activism is like fever: something running unnaturally high - which indicates something else needs repair. Don't just ease the symptoms, Mr President. You and your successors need to introduce the impossible: an overhaul of the system.

(Right after repealing DOMA/ DADT would be fine with me.)