This slogan was suggested to me years ago by Leonard Liggio of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and it captures nicely the analysis presented in a blog post by Jon Rowe on Judicial Nullification v. Judicial Supremacy…or, Sowell doesn’t get it.
Much of what is termed “judicial activism” is simply the Court exercising its judicial review power to nullify a piece of legislation, usually a piece of legislation which impinges on liberty. Is that really “legislating”? In my eyes, judicial review is the very opposite of legislating. Legislatures, by their very nature, pass laws. Nullification is negating, or taking away, legislation. It’s reverse legislating.
Regarding that Texas law to which Sowell refers, it was the sodomy law in Lawrence. A problem with the “if I were a member of the Texas legislature, I would have voted against the law,” sentiment is that, by the very nature of the legislative process, it’s quite easy to add a plethora of new (and mostly useless) laws every year to the record, but almost impossible to repeal old ones.
Finally, regarding the “nobody knows that they have violated the law until after the fact” assertion, Sowell’s argument doesn’t fit well to circumstances where courts exercise their judicial nullification power. Again, legislating, in my mind, is passing a command and control like rule which binds the people like “you can’t drive over 55 mph.” If, for instance, you were driving 60 in a 65mph zone and some court, after the fact, found you guilty of breaking the 55mph speed limit, then Sowell’s argument would make sense.
Let’s actually see what goes on with judicial nullification, using Lawrence as an example. . . .
Read the rest here. Civil comments only, please.