In yesterday’s New York Times Week in Review section, Linda Greenhouse has an article on the barriers liberals face in repopularizing the notion of using the courts to enact “profound social change.”
I was particularly interested in something Greenhouse notes more or less in passing: namely, that there is a relatively clear vision of the Constitution and the role of the courts that is popular among liberal activists and academics. It’s not unanimous, as Greenhouse notes — for example, Cass Sunstein isn’t on board. But there’s actually a pretty wide consensus on a lot of issues, as she notes in this partial list:
It is easy enough to find consensus on a checklist that would include a robust reading of the guarantees of the Bill of Rights, including the notion that some rights are fundamental; a constitutional interpretation not tethered to a search for the framers