The Supreme Court A Court of Judicial Restraint and Activism

A detailed Summary of The Supreme Court A Court of Judicial Restraint and Activism


The Supreme Court: A Court of Judicial Restraint and Activism

America is a society of growth and change. In such a dynamic environment the ability of the government to meet the needs of the people is a never ceasing battle of compromise, and the battle of opposing sides over the role of the Supreme Court is especially heated since this body is responsible for interpreting the vague but fundamental Constitution. This is the Supreme Court's responsibility in the system of checks and balances, but the degree to which the Court is to embrace this responsibility is divided sharply: conservatives insist on a policy of judicial restraint while liberals and a many interest groups testify to the validity of a policy of judicial activism.

Like former Senator Sam Ervin, who said that "a judicial activist is a judge who interprets the constitution to mean what it would have said if he instead of the Founding Fathers had written it," (qtd. in "What is Judicial Activism?") many conservatives adamantly oppose judicial activism in the Supreme Court. Judicial activism, or the political concept "which allows judges to promote desirable social goals," (Janda 338) is seen by many conservatives as being fundamentally wrong in America. When t


Democracy: Government in America. Boston, MA: Houghton

he Court decides to break legal precedent, such as when the Court overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) opinion with Brown v. the Board of Education's (1954), they go against previous legal understandings. Most conservatives will argue against a policy of judicial activism in favor of judicial restraint, but there are instances when the Court finds itself in the position to initiate changes or intervene in Constitutional understandings to coincide with the society in which they find themselves submerged.

Nelson, Robert H. "Judicial Activism in Reverse." Forbes

Conservatives may find validity in arguing that judicial restraint is the only means through which the government and Constitution of the United States may remain untainted by the ever growing number of interest groups and liberals who are out for their individual rights instead of the good of the country as a whole, but it is these individuals who make up the country's populace. Liberals argue that judicial activism helps define what is vague or unclear in the Constitution, thereby protecting and specifying their rights as citizens. While some conservatives ma

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