Ed Brayton talks about (not his words) “the only true unvarnished hero in the recent ‘legal’ phase of the Terri Schiavo saga,” 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stanley F. Birch, Jr., who took the Administration and Congress to task for their unconstitutional dabbling in the Schiavo case.
Judge Birch was essentially ending any possibility of being nominated to the Supreme Court (you don’t win nominations by accusing both the White House and the Congress of brazenly flouting the Constitution for political gain), and he had been mentioned by many as a potential nominee because of his solidly conservative views and reputation.
He then talks — wisely — about the value of an independent judiciary, and its foundational nature (in the Federalist Papers) as a check on the other branches.
That is indeed what the battle over “judicial activism” is really all about. It’s a sustained attack on the independence of the judiciary undertaken because the judiciary is such an easy target for elected politicians to take aim at. It’s a power grab by the legislature, which doesn’t like to be told no, which is precisely what the courts were invented to do. We owe Judge Birch a great thanks for reminding us of that once again.
Neither party has been immune to this, but as the party in power, the GOP has been the most egregious offender over the last few years.