Judicial Activism

Virginia's Republican-controlled House rejected the judicial nomination of a gay Richmond prosecutor on the grounds that his past "indicated that he would press an activist agenda from the bench."

During three days of hearings last month, the notion that the Supreme Court would invalidate the federal health care law went from being a right wing fantasy to a possible, even likely, outcome based on the questions and comments of the Republican justices.

The Affordable Care Act case is a perfect case for judicial restraint. If the states that brought the suit want to change the law, they can do it through the political process. That is the point of democracy. They do not need the justices of the Supreme Court to do the job for them.

I prefer to think this does not translate simply as "liberal = favorable to Democrats" and "conservative = favorable to Republicans." Yet the radical inconsistency of the court in two recent cases suggests I am insufficiently cynical.

Anti-government forces realize that once Americans begin to receive the benefits of universal health care -- no denials for pre-existing conditions, no medical underwriting, no caps on benefits -- they won't want to give them up.

WASHINGTON -- Looking to a Supreme Court decision in the health care case months away, President Barack Obama has locked horns with Chief Justice John...

WASHINGTON -- The wrangling between the judicial and executive branches over President Barack Obama's health care law grew even more contentious on Tu...

Three days of Supreme Court arguments over the health-care law demonstrated for all to see that conservative justices are prepared to act as an altern...

If the high court's conservative wing does indeed strike the minimum coverage provision, they will do so by actively ignoring or overriding precedent.

In courtrooms all across America, judges sit helplessly by, their hands legally tied, as the twisted immigration law wreaks havoc on American families,

Gingrich apparently has this view that judicial independence and separation of powers are some quaint old relics that have seen better days.

The GOP keeps insisting that judges be held accountable; that somehow public opinion should influence outcomes. Nothing could be more inaccurate or contrary to constitutional principles.

To those locked in the power struggles between right and left, adverse court decisions are frequently lambasted as "judicial activism." When the Supre...

The absence of conservative criticism regarding the decisions declaring the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional demonstrates that judicial activism is in the eyes of the beholder.

Monday's federal court decision striking down the landmark Affordable Care Act shows how much the political right has embraced judicial activism.

As a result of unprecedented Republican political gamesmanship, President Obama ends the first half of his first term with a smaller percentage of his nominees confirmed than any previous president.

The difference between liberals and conservatives on the role of the courts is that only right-wingers criticize their political opponents for doing so.

This week Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge Jon M. Counsell ruled that the state's ban on carrying concealed handguns in public was overly broad and therefore unconstitutional.

A reminder: Courts have the right and duty to declare a law invalid when it conflicts with the Constitution. There is no proviso stating "so long as the conservatives agree with the decision."

In our latest poll, voters send one clear message -- they want more direct power, not in the hands of the politicians, but in the hands of the people, giving them more control over the judiciary and election of the president.

OPINION - The senatorial process of vetting Supreme Court candidates is about as close to Kabuki theater as we get in America. Elena Kagan did the ri...

If the President meant to imply that judicial activism is invariably in "error," then he seems to have fallen for the line conservatives have been espousing ever since the days of Nixon: judicial restraint is good, judicial activism is bad.