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	Judicial Activism Reconsidered
		While judicial activism is in principle adaptable to any ideological program—and in practice likely to be adopted by its current ideological enemies if it proves to be politically unstoppable—it is nevertheless "no accident" that the principled argument for judicial activism has been made largely by those with a particular social vision.
		The argument for judicial restraint in specific cases is that the inevitable variance from the ideal can be better kept within limits when the whole process is conceived as one of seeking boundaries of cognitive meaning for each concrete case as it arises, rather than weighing values derived from a multiplicity of ever-changing sources.
		The more general argument for judicial restraint is that, even when imperfectly observed, it has maintained a political legitimacy and public support which have enabled constitutional democracy to survive for two hundred years, while more ambitious forms of government have come and gone—or have been able to survive only by draconian methods.
	www.amatecon.com /etext/jar/jar.html (11465 words)

	HL456: A Case for Principled Judicial Activism
		I believe that the responsibility of a federal judge, to state it in the language of restraint, is to be restrained in the interpretation of constitutionally enacted legislation and regulations, and to be aggressively activist in the protection of individual liberty.
		Judicial restraint is not a part of that philosophy; it is not a constitutional end.
		The judicial restraint of conservatism is rooted in majoritarianism, not libertarianism.
	www.heritage.org /Research/LegalIssues/HL456.cfm (4745 words)

	Intro to Judicial Philosophy - Restraint
		Judicial restraint is a philosophy found at one end of a spectrum of judicial philosophies.
		But however it is referred to, judicial restraint can always be characterized as a judicial philosophy which reviews law, rather than "make" it; defers to the democratically elected representatives of government; and holds in highest regard the intent of the framers of the Constitution, as well as the language of that document.
		Advocates of judicial restraint often argue that judicial activism is a repudiation of the admittedly important values of stability and predictability in law.
	www.emunix.emich.edu /~jcooper/emlaw/unit2_philr.html (1015 words)

	Judicial Activism Reconsidered
		A contemporary exponent of judicial restraint, Judge Robert H. Bork, has summarized the argument in terms very similar to those of Holmes: "In a constitutional democracy, the moral content of the law must be given by the morality of the framer or the legislator, never by the morality of the judge.
		While judicial activism is in principle adaptable to any ideological program-- and in practice likely to be adopted by its current ideological enemies if it proves to be politically unstoppable-- it is nevertheless "no accident" that the principled argument for judicial activism has been made largely by those with a particular social vision.
		The more general argument for judicial restraint is that, even when imperfectly observed, it has maintained a political legitimacy and public support which have enabled constitutional democracy to survive for two hundred years, while more ambitious forms of government have come and gone-- or have been able to survive only by draconian methods.
	www.tsowell.com /judicial.htm (12540 words)

	AmSpec Blog
		In the course of this last year of judicial controversy, the left has managed to muddle the definition of "judicial activism" and water it down merely to mean not deferring to democratic choice.
		Judicial restraint is practiced when courts follow their proper constitutional role.
		In other cases, one is exercising judicial restraint by overruling the actions of democratic branches of government.
	www.spectator.org /blogger.asp?BlogID=1187 (626 words)

	Judicial Restraint
		If, in advance of election, a judicial candidate has declared that she's opposed to abortion, or favors capital punishment, or is against civil unions for gay couples (the list goes on and on), litigants will assume the reverse: that they can't get a fair shake.
		The new rule permits judicial candidates to talk about issues, but they must not "intentionally or recklessly" say things that could be construed "by a reasonable person" to commit themselves to decide cases a particular way.
		The goal, of course, is prudence -- judicial temperament -- and this rule could well produce such a result.
	www.politicskentucky.com /judicial_restraint.html (439 words)

	essays research papers - Judicial Activism
		Judicial Activism is the process by which judges take an active role in the governing process and Judicial Self Restraint is that Judges should not read their own philosophies into the constitution.
		Judicial activism is the view that the Supreme Court should be an active and creative partner with the legislative and executive branches in help shaping the government policy (Wasserman American Politics 138).
		Judicial Restraint is the idea that the Court should not place its views on other branches of the government or the states unless there is a clear violation of the Constitution (Wasserman American Politics 138).
	www.123helpme.com /view.asp?id=73222 (579 words)

	Home > Publications >
		Roberts's understanding of judicial restraint — and of its opposite, judicial activism — is comprehensively spelled out in two articles he drafted for Atty.
		Judicial restraint is not to be confused with blind adherence to precedent.
		Consistent with his judicial record, Roberts's Reagan-era documents establish that he is a long-standing and committed proponent of judicial restraint.
	www.eppc.org /publications/pubID.2422/pub_detail.asp (1037 words)

	A discussion on 'judicial activism' \| The San Diego Union-Tribune
		And it was hypocrisy in reverse for some California Democrats to urge judicial restraint in Bush but laud federal judicial activism to postpone the gubernatorial recall election.
		The judicially activist side in the case was the condemnation-opposing dissent – which swam upstream against 70 years of property rights precedents and proposed a more active judicial role in riding herd on land-use officials.
		A second requirement for an honest discussion of judicial activism is a willingness to grapple with core questions that have long remained unanswered.
	www.signonsandiego.com /uniontrib/20050912/news_mz1e12smith.html (802 words)

	Judicial Restraint Law and Legal Definition - USlegalforms.com
		Judicial restraint refers to the doctrine that judges' own philosophies or policy preferences should not be injected into the law and should whenever reasonably possible construe the law so as to avoid second guessing the policy decisions made by other governmental institutions such as Congress, the President and state legislatures.
		The deference to lawmakers exhibited by exercising judicial restraint is opposed to the concept of judicial activism.
		In the area of constitutional law, the judicial activist views the U.S. Constitution as a living, dynamic document which must necessarily be interpreted to meet the needs of modern times.
	www.uslegalforms.com /legaldefinitions/j/judicial-restraint.php (264 words)

	Westlaw Download Summary Report for UNIV OF HONG KON 3175798
		Charges of "judicial activism" as disregarding precedent must be considered in light of the fact that courts treat different kinds of law differently.
		McWhinney notes that judicial self-restraint, at least for Justice Frankfurter, "is predicated on the rule of reason--unless the Court can say that reasonable men could not possibly have passed the legislation in question, the Court irrespective of its own views on the legislation, must uphold it." McWhinney, supra note 58, at 848.
		Judicial self-restraint, he explains, "involves the resort to legal relativism," and "seems to run the risk of too frequently reducing to an unconscious and therefore (since the weighing of policy alternatives requisite to an informed decision is necessarily absent) rather inefficient form of policy-making." Id. at 850.
	www.constitution.org /lrev/kmiec/judicial_activism.htm (10447 words)

	OpinionJournal - Extra
		We are now experiencing a judicial version of this phenomenon: judicial activists and nationalists instructing conservatives and federalists about the meaning of judicial restraint and federalism.
		But here "judicial activism" refers to courts that are willing to overstep the bounds of either the Constitution, or unquestionably constitutional statutes, to impose their will on the other branches of government and on the people themselves.
		Restraint in the face of those who exceed those boundaries is simply an abdication of judicial authority.
	www.opinionjournal.com /extra/?id=65000770 (851 words)

	Paul Greenberg: Judicial restraint keeps jurists from shooting themselves in the foot \| www.azstarnet.com ®
		So long as there is a truly independent judiciary, it will be threatened by the political passions of the times - and by those of us carried away by those passions, unaware that when we undermine the judiciary, we dismantle the institution that guards our own rights.
		Judicial restraint is like the Do Right Rule.
		Not every violation of judicial impropriety can be defined beforehand, but, as Justice Potter Stewart said of obscenity, you know it when you see it.
	www.azstarnet.com /sn/printDS/55964 (822 words)

	SSRN-Judicial Restraint in the Administrative State: Beyond the Countermajoritarian Difficulty by Matthew Adler
		Arguments for judicial restraint point to some kind of judicial deficit (such as a democratic or an epistemic deficit) as grounds for limiting judicial review.
		This Article seeks to recast scholarly debate about judicial restraint, and to challenge the Countermajoritarian Difficulty, by arguing that legislature-centered arguments do not (simply) extend to cover most of the practice of judicial review.
		Judicial review includes not merely the review of statutes, but also the review of administrative rules, orders and actions, and the statutory pedigree of these rules, orders and actions does not suffice to "translate" legislature-centered arguments into the administrative state.
	papers.ssrn.com /sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=10517 (325 words)

	Free-Essays.us - Difference Between Judicial Activism And Judicial Restraint (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13)
		I noticed that the judicial branch usually restrain themselves from involving in critical civil policy, but will be active when the time comes when the general public, in which the case is decided, feels a change is needed.
		Judicial activism is the view that the Supreme Court should be an active and creative partner with the legislative and executive branches in shaping government policy (Wasserman American Politics 138).
		Judicial Restraint, on the other hand, is the idea that the Court should not impose its views on other branches of the government or the states unless there is a clear violation of the Constitution (Wasserman American Politics 138).
	www.free-essays.us /dbase/b8/aie86.shtml (770 words)

	Commentary: 'Homosexual Marriage' Finally Meets Judicial Restraint - The Post Chronicle
		This is an apt description of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, which found a "right" to homosexual marriage in the 1780 Constitution of that state.
		Judicial restraint is an alien concept to many judges, who view themselves as the real rulers of our nation.
		We must confirm judges who believe in judicial restraint and are not motivated by a desire to impose their own wills upon the American people.
	www.postchronicle.com /commentary/article_21228547.shtml (806 words)

	The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : Judicial restraint and accountability
		In the first place, it would lead to judicial forbearance and provide a greater latitude for the public to exercise their democratic right to criticise the judgments, attitude, philosophy, and conduct of judges.
		Secondly, it would substitute the concept of judicial accountability for the notion of `dignity' of the judges and the judicial office.
		The offence of scandalising the court is based on the outdated notion of dignity that seeks to place judges on a higher footing than the ordinary people and other constitutional functionaries as well, and runs counter to the republican spirit of the Constitution.
	www.hindu.com /2005/07/28/stories/2005072806221000.htm (539 words)

	Judicial activism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Judicial Activism is the tendency of some judges to take a flexible view of their power of judicial interpretation, especially when such judges import subjective reasoning that displaces objective evaluation of applicable law.
		The opposite of judicial activism is judicial lethargy, and the proper judicial role is somewhere between.
		Judicial decisions are of greater or less authority as precedents, according to circumstances.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Judicial_activism (3134 words)

	Political Blog: "Strict Construction" and "Judicial Activism" - Gravier House Press
		Again, this type of judicial activism or restraint has very little to do with whether a judge is politically “Democratic” or “Republican”, “liberal” or “conservative”.
		Therefore, whether one favors “judicial activism” or “conservatism” in this sense often depends on whether he or she happens to be in the majority.
		Yet, when you hear a pundit or a politician on tv talking about “strict construction” or “judicial activism”, he or she likely doesn’t know, or doesn’t care, what he or she is talking about.
	www.gravierhouse.com /blogpost41.html (719 words)

	Antle: Judicial Restraint Depends on Conservative Self-Restraint
		Instead of a constitutionalist effort to keep judges away from de facto policymaking and impose checks on judicial power commensurate with those on the other branches of government, many now see a populist attack against an independent judiciary based more on opposition to unpopular rulings than fidelity to the rule of law.
		If conservatives sometimes seem to use judicial activism as shorthand for any ruling they dislike, it’s a habit they have developed as their liberal opposite numbers on the federal bench have repeatedly read their own policy preferences into the law.
		Judicial review is a valuable constitutional check against executive and legislative powers, but there is no good reason for court powers to be unchecked.
	www.politicalusa.com /columnists/antle/antle_042.htm (926 words)

	IJ Publications: Liberty & Law
		Having achieved this judicially sanctioned welfare state, liberals are strong supporters of letting the political process operate unimpeded by court oversight.
		In the absence of judicial limitations, protection of economic and property rights is increasingly dependent on the self-restraint of government institutions—a commodity that is chronically in short supply.
		Judicial activism and abdication have read these rights out of the Constitution; it is essential that consistent and principled judicial engagement rehabilitate them.
	www.ij.org /publications/liberty/2005/14_3_05_f.html (1401 words)

	Judicial restraint - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Judicial restraint is a theory of judicial interpretation that endorses the limited exercise of power by the judiciary.
		Judges and legal scholars who practice or support judicial restraint have been described as "strict constructionist," "interpretivist," and "textualist".
		Supporters often see the judiciary as properly the weakest branch of government, responsible only for deciding cases and controversies.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Judicial_restraint (298 words)

	Would Roberts practice the restraint he preaches? \| csmonitor.com
		The essence of the conservative push for judicial restraint is that under the American system of checks and balances there is no check on unelected, life-tenured judges abusing their power when straying from the limiting text of the Constitution.
		Roberts's position on judicial restraint today appears to be largely consistent with the talking points and memos he drafted 24 years ago as a young lawyer in the Reagan administration.
		Perhaps the best evidence of how Roberts's approach to judicial restraint translates to a courtroom are his rulings as a federal appeals court judge.
	www.csmonitor.com /2005/0901/p03s01-uspo.html (1183 words)

	OFFOFFOFF opinion interview THOMAS KECK about judicial activism and the conservative Supreme Court
		Although President Bush has praised conservative judges for their "judicial restraint" and promised to nominate more justices like Antonin Scalia, constitutional scholar Thomas Keck argues that this is the most activist Supreme Court in history.
		It has more often been the case that conservatives have promoted judicial activism in defense of constitutional principles like property rights or limited government, and liberals have responded to those decisions by calling for judicial restraint.
		And henceforward — if it wasn't clear already — from 1954 on it's certainly clear that the dominant justification for the active use of judicial power are sort of liberal principles of liberty and equality, and it's primarily conservatives who are complaining about the courts.
	www.offoffoff.com /opinion/2005/keck.php (2078 words)

	Think Progress » Judicial Restraint?
		Republican appointed SCOTUS judges are twice as likely to exercise judicial activism as some of their ‘liberal’ counterparts.
		If judicial restraint is what bush wants, he clearly should have appointed a liberal.
		Judicial activism is defined as the act of a judge striking down a congressional law.
	thinkprogress.org /2005/11/01/judicial-restraint (332 words)

	Althouse: A conservatism of judicial restraint.
		Alito may just be "judicially conservative" in the sense that he's a by-the-books-defer-to-the-legislature-don't-needlessly-expand-the-rule-announced jurist.
		During the time of FDR, one could be judicially conservative while simultaneously upholding some of the most progressive legislation in history.
		Yes of course people make reference to things "personal" when making decisions, but there can be a higher principle of judicial restraint over "don't agree with gay marriage" or "think abortion should be legal".
	althouse.blogspot.com /2005/11/conservatism-of-judicial-restraint.html (1745 words)

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