Judicial activism is a major bane to our society. Whether you are on the left or on the right, having a black robe legislate from the bench his pet theories instead of interpreting the law is just wrong. Now HR 3920 attempts to tackle this but as written it's obvious it won't work.
But there are other issues. As I wrote before, purposeful violation of the law should be an impeachable offense. During the impeachment and trial process, the reasoning of the legislatures debating removal would certainly provide a clear record of what the issues are and what the Congress intended.
This clears the problem that Prof. Volokh brings up about the same justices simply finding the same way in subsequent cases. You do that more than once and I think it'll guarantee you get bounced off the bench. Sure, you can then join Alcee Hastings in Congress but that's where you should have been in the first place if you have a passion for legislating.
Professor Bainbridge believes it's a shot across the bow meant to send a message to the courts to knock it off or something with teeth will come back next year. I don't much buy into that. We've gone well beyond shot across the bow territory. The question is whether the Congress is willing to go beyond just annulling to impeach justices who waste everybody's time with these horrible cases.
Posted by TMLutas at March 18, 2004 01:24 PM