Conservative judges can be activists, too

It’s time to push back against those who claim that liberal judges are activists, while conservative judges hold fast to what the law really says, and what the nation’s founders intended when they wrote the Constitution in the 1780s.

By

Opinion

October 19, 2020 - 8:55 AM

Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the second day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on October 13, 2020 in Washington, DC. Barrett was nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who passed away in September. (Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool/Getty Images/TNS)

As the nation watches Republicans rush to approve President Donald Trump’s nominee Amy Coney Barrett to a seat on the Supreme Court, it’s worth asking whether the hurried effort undermines the primary argument conservatives make about the courts.

Put another way, it’s time to push back against those who claim that liberal judges are activists, while conservative judges hold fast to what the law really says, and what the nation’s founders intended when they wrote the Constitution in the 1780s.

The very act of rushing through this nomination out of partisan fear is a form of activism, undermining conservatives’ claims that they don’t want judges with political agendas.

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