Judicial Activism Quotes

Central planning, judicial activism, and the nanny state all presume vastly more knowledge than any elite have ever possessed. ~ Thomas Sowell

If you start from a belief that the most knowledgeable person on earth does not have even one percent of the total knowledge on earth, that shoots down social engineering, economic central planning, judicial activism and innumerable other ambitious notions favored by the political left. ~ Thomas Sowell

As Alexander Hamilton said in 'The Federalist Papers,' law is about the exercise of judgment and not will. Judicial activism is best understood as substituting judicial opinion for the command of law. The law is not an infinitely malleable tool. ~ Edwin Meese

Invalidating laws has absolutely nothing to do with judicial activism. It depends on whether the law is unconstitutional or not. That's really the key point. ~ Ann Coulter

You want to know what judicial activism is? Judicial activism is judges imposing their policy preferences on the words of the Constitution. ~ Ted Cruz

Our Parliamentary system has simply failed to meet the challenge of judicial activism. ~ Stockwell Day

If Americans loved judicial activism, liberals wouldn't be lying about what it is. Judicial activism means making up constitutional rights in order to strike down laws the justices don't like based on their personal preferences. It's not judicial activism to strike down laws because they violate the Constitution. ~ Ann Coulter

So the danger of conservative judicial activism has been averted for another year. Stay tuned. ~ Michael Kinsley

Liberals attempt through judicial activism what they cannot win at the ballot box. ~ Rush Limbaugh

Out of control judicial activism threatens traditional marriage in America. ~ Ernest Istook

Conservative critics of Obama seized on his aspiration for 'empathy,' declaring it an invitation to judicial activism - as if empathy could not coexist with impartiality - and later made it a subtext of their confirmation complaints. ~ Joan Biskupic

Of course, conservatives always claim to be against judicial activism. ~ Michael Kinsley

It wouldn't be fair to say that conservatives cherish property the way liberals cherish equality. But it would be fair to say that the takings clause is the conservatives' recipe for judicial activism just as they say liberals have misused the equal protection clause. ~ Michael Kinsley

One of the most useful skills advocates can develop is a sincere satisfaction in changing their mind, putting the goal of effectiveness before the goal of having been correct. ~ Jacy Reese Anthis

The debate over judicial nominations is a debate over the judiciary itself. It is a debate over how much power unelected judges should have in our system of government, how much control judges should have over a written constitution that belongs to the people. ~ Orrin Hatch

Here is a hilarious, surprising, tender, always genuine tale of American youth in the crosshairs of the new century--a battle of growing pains culminating in a bloody headlock with nature, family, machismo, activism, and love. CB Murphy has written a terrific and timely novel which speeds by and ends, like youth itself, far too quickly. ~ Tim Johnston

Hitler spoke at length about the impact of his own personal Catholic faith on his political activism, noting that it was his religious convictions in particular that compelled him to be a ruthless anti-Semite. ~ Derek Hastings

The longer you wait for the future, the shorter it will be. ~ Loesje

We need the right kind of world, the most just economy and social relations, and a rich diversity of human character in order to flourish". ~ Tamara Pearson

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not. ~ Dr. Seuss

We must use a judicial, rather than a political, standard to evaluate [a nominee's] fitness for the Supreme Court. That standard must be based on the fundamental principle that judges interpret and apply but do not make law. ~ Orrin Hatch

Love is active, not passive. It is our love for one another, for Mother Earth, for our fellow creatures that compels us to act on their behalf. ~ Laurence Overmire

There is a danger to judicial independence when people have no understanding of how the judiciary fits into the constitutional scheme. ~ David Souter

I am friends with Kathleen Hanna and Adam Horovitz, aka Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys. I can't believe I am friends with them. I love Kathleen's music and I am in awe of her social activism and general awesomeness. I asked her to interview me for Interview magazine when I was just a sketch performer whom nobody knew. She said yes because she supports young women. This is the artist who pulled women to the front at her rock shows. She shows up and does the work and is the real deal. Now she is my friend. ~ Amy Poehler

Individual heterosexual women came to the movement from relationships where men were cruel, unkind, violent, unfaithful. Many of these men were radical thinkers who participated in movements for social justice, speaking out on behalf of the workers, the poor, speaking out on behalf of racial justice. However when it came to the issue of gender they were as sexist as their conservative cohorts. ~ Bell Hooks

We need to reshape the movement as one of grassroots activists, and not 'professional activists' who populate the seemingly endless number of national animal rights groups. For many people, activism has become writing a check to a national group that is very pleased to have you leave it to them. Although it is important to give financial support to worthy efforts only, giving money is not enough and giving to the wrong groups can actually do more harm than good. ~ Gary L. Francione

Art is about the edges and the sharp corners and those places are not conducive to activism, which is about putting on a gloss. ~ Scott Thompson

I don't get it. I just don't get it. If Art is supposed to imitate Life, why do they want all the actors to be thin? There are fat people in the world. Shouldn't there be a few of us actors to represent them? ~ Camryn Manheim

The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process. ~ Eric Holder

Nothing has yet been offered to invalidate the doctrine that the meaning of the Constitution may as well be ascertained by the Legislative as by the Judicial authority. ~ James Madison

I guess it's the curse of our generation, having to put aside our lives to do the right thing. ~ Allan Dare Pearce

It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men. ~ Samuel Adams

There is something so degrading - at least, one would think that there were something so degrading in the practice of writing as a trade - that anyone who has once earned a livelihood, or part of it, obviously and openly, by popular writing, can never be seriously regarded by any great number of people. And then, of course, "he does too much. ~ Ezra Pound

It was not the blatant evil that broke the soul. No, in the face of utter darkness, the human spirit often rose to soaring heights. It was the shades of gray, the nuances and subtleties that wore people down. It was dealing with sellouts and side deals, small injustices and petty grievances that turned heroes into stoop-shouldered, weary old men. That was how they crumbled, idealists like this young man. They tripped on the garbage heap of miserly greed and fearful half-measures. ~ Rivera Sun

On what reasonable grounds would sincere, informed environmentalists refuse to join animal advocates in a campaign to protect increasingly threatened fish populations from the snapping teeth of humanity? ~ Lisa Kemmerer

How can I save my little boy from Oppenheimer's deadly toy? ~ Sting

And how about the "Daily Odes to the Benefactor"? Who can read them without bowing his head reverently before the selfless labor of this Number of Numbers? Or the terrible blood-red beauty of the "Flowers of Judicial Verdicts"? Or the immortal tragedy, "Lat for Work"? Or the bedside book of "Stanzas on Sexual Hygiene"? ~ Yevgeny Zamyatin

The darkness of ignorance is allergic to the light of your truth. Speak your truth. ~ Tonya GJ Prince

One single object ... [will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Fury spends itself pretty quickly when there's no fury facing it. ~ John Lewis

Silence of dissent creates change at the behest of those who do not stay silent. ~ Psoid Froid

What most interests me is human connection, whether it's on the street, in
community, through music, storytelling, and shared experience. People tell me to be a rock cellist, make money, and give up on the activism so I can make more money. ~ Ben Sollee

It's characteristic of this judicial system that a man is condemned not only when he's innocent but also in ignorance. ~ Franz Kafka

Those who stand for different causes during different generations often experience the same oppositions and the same difficulties as those of the previous and the next generations. That is the basis of history repeating itself. ~ Criss Jami

It is important for upcoming activists to study American history, as well as political and philosophical thought. It is unlikely that what you hope to accomplish is new. Current activism is almost always linked to the history of revolution worldwide, and Americans have a special connection to this legacy because our nation was born out of the struggle against tyranny. ~ John Lewis

A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things. ~ Barack Obama

Punishment is not something inflicted by the good upon the bad, but rather by the powerful upon the powerless. ~ Tamara Pearson

Burnout is a way of telling you that your form of activism was perhaps not very full circle. ~ Gloria Steinem

For all of the pedestals MLK is now put on, far above the reach of ordinary black Americans, Martin was in his life viewed as the most dangerous man in America. ~ Ijeoma Oluo

Historical determinism is a recipe for political quietism. ~ Terry Eagleton

She was not stunned, the way I was. In some strange way she was gleeful, as if this was what she had been expecting for some time and now she'd been proven right. ~ Margaret Atwood

If we truly believe in the power of cultural institutions to impact communities and engage authentically with social justice issues, if we believe in museums' capacity to bring about social change, improve cultural awareness, and even transform the world, than we must also believe that our internal practices have an impact, and must act according to the changes we seek. ~ Monica O Montgomery

I think, for one, the LGBTQ community is just a paragon of leadership, of standing up and saying "these are our rights, and we deserve them." As a model of activism, it's so wonderful what the community has been able to achieve towards goals like marriage equality. ~ Jill Stein

There are really only two standards of appellate review: plenary and deferential. Conventionally there are four basic standards (with many variants), which in ascending order of deference to the trial court or administrative agency are de novo, clearly erroneous, substantial evidence, and abuse of discretion. But the last three are, in practice, the same, because finer distinctions are beyond judges' cognitive capacity. The multiplication of unusual distinctions is a familiar judicial pathology. ~ Richard A. Posner

In fact cycling has always been 'saved' by judicial investigations and not by the anti-doping controls we put in place. That's the harsh truth. We have relied on them to clean the sport up. ~ David Millar

[R]efusing or not refusing to execute a law to stamp it with its final character ... makes the Judiciary department paramount in fact to the Legislature, which was never intended and can never be proper. ~ James Madison

What does it mean to demonstrate in the streets, what is the significance of that collective activity so symptomatic of the twentieth century? In stupefaction Ulrich watches the demonstrators from the window; as they reach the foot of the palace, their faces turn up, turn furious, the men brandish their walking sticks, but "a few steps farther, at a bend where the demonstration seemed to scatter into the wings, most of them were already dropping their greasepaint: it would be absurd to keep up the menacing looks where there were no more spectators." In the light of that metaphor, the demonstrators are not men in a rage; they are actors performing rage! As soon as the performance is over they are quick to drop their greasepaint! Later, in the 1960s, philosophers would talk about the modern world in which everything had turned into spectacle: demonstrations, wars, and even love; through this "quick and sagacious penetration" (Fielding), Musil had already long ago discerned the "society of spectacle. ~ Milan Kundera

The point is, art never stopped a war and never got anybody a job. That was never its function. Art cannot change events. But it can change people. It can affect people so that they are changed... because people are changed by art – enriched, ennobled, encouraged – they then act in a way that may affect the course of events... by the way they vote, they behave, the way they think. ~ Leonard Bernstein

From my keen observation, it is a very sad fact that the Philippines' current administration's drug war crisis has fully pressed the pedal of acceleration to more division, hatred, cycles of violence (copycat killings, summary killings, extra judicial killings, collateral victims of drug war), toxic revenge, and perpetual impunity. ~ Angelica Hopes, reflections on Drug War in the Philippines ~ Angelica Hopes

The judge is forced for the most part to reach his audience through the medium of the press whose reporting of judicial decisions is all too often inaccurate and superficial. ~ Irving R. Kaufman