Adam J. White, writing for AEI:
To those of us who want to believe that The Federalist is the âtrue account of the Constitution and of the regime it was calculated to engender,â the early weeks of summer always put our faith to the test.
Every June, the Supreme Court concludes its yearâs work by releasing manyâmaybe allâof the termâs most controversial decisions. That annual spectacle, in which judges and lawyers dominate political headlines for a week or more, often casts no little doubt on Publiusâs famous prediction that âthe judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerousâ branch of the federal government, exercising âneither force nor will, but merely judgment.â Whatever one thinks of the courtâs decisions that term, one cannot deny that the courtâs justices, and the lawyers that bring the cases to bar, wield enormous power in American politics.
The justices recognize that power, of course. Two decades ago, Justice Anthony Kennedy looked out his chambersâ windows to the end-of-term commotion on the marble plaza below and remarked to a reporter, âSometimes you donât know if youâre Caesar about to cross the Rubicon or Captain Queeg cutting your own tow lineâ; moments later, he and his colleagues entered the courtroom and issued their decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, controversially reaffirming the basic right to abortion first recognized in Roe v. Wade.
This year, Justice Kennedy stood once again at the center of the political maelstrom, writing the courtâs opinion striking down the Defense of Marriage Actâs federal definition of marriage. Justice Antonin Scalia dissented from that decision and began his own opinion not with his views on the merits of the specific marriage-rights question, but with a broader denunciation of the courtâs outsized role in American life. …
Every June, the Supreme Court concludes its yearâs work by releasing manyâmaybe allâof the termâs most controversial decisions. That annual spectacle, in which judges and lawyers dominate political headlines for a week or more, often casts no little doubt on Publiusâs famous prediction that âthe judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerousâ branch of the federal government, exercising âneither force nor will, but merely judgment.â Whatever one thinks of the courtâs decisions that term, one cannot deny that the courtâs justices, and the lawyers that bring the cases to bar, wield enormous power in American politics.
The justices recognize that power, of course. Two decades ago, Justice Anthony Kennedy looked out his chambersâ windows to the end-of-term commotion on the marble plaza below and remarked to a reporter, âSometimes you donât know if youâre Caesar about to cross the Rubicon or Captain Queeg cutting your own tow lineâ; moments later, he and his colleagues entered the courtroom and issued their decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, controversially reaffirming the basic right to abortion first recognized in Roe v. Wade.
This year, Justice Kennedy stood once again at the center of the political maelstrom, writing the courtâs opinion striking down the Defense of Marriage Actâs federal definition of marriage. Justice Antonin Scalia dissented from that decision and began his own opinion not with his views on the merits of the specific marriage-rights question, but with a broader denunciation of the courtâs outsized role in American life. …
Whole thing here.
