In their Congressional confirmation hearings, Supreme Court Justice Roberts and the other four conservative (i.e. Republican) justices went to great lengths to insist that there is no place on the Supreme Court for "activist" judges and judges should not legislate from the bench. In fact Justice Roberts used the analogy of an baseball umpire who interprets the rules to the situation but does not make the rules. They have demonstrated in the recent Citizen United Decision that they did not believe what they were saying; they were saying what the public and Congress was hoping for and had the right to expect.
As has been pointed out frequently in the last week, their research and scholarship is also suspect. They conveniently overlooked Thomas Jefferson's statement: “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (the banks) will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent that their fathers conquered.” (Dan Burnard, "The New Corporatocracy," Toledo Free Press, 1/29/10) Obviously Thomas Jefferson did not think that corporations and big Wall Street banks were persons and had the same 1st Amendment rights as an individual.
One would think that real conservatives like Barry Goldwater would be screaming to the high heavens, but we haven't heard from them. Obviously it is not about principles; it's about politics. On the other hand, we have not yet heard from George Will. It will be interesting to learn his position.
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