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Right Wing Judicial Activism: Is The SCOTUS "A Contest Of Ideas?"

By Big Tent Democrat

Tom Goldstein writes one of the most revealing appraisals of the Supreme Court I think I have ever read:

I think that the most interesting Justices, by far, were Justices Scalia and Thomas. Both remain the most principled members of the Court. . . . Justice Thomas, in particular, remained willing to front new theories on critical questions . . . No other member of the Court is so independent in his thinking. . . . I disagree profoundly with Justice Thomas’s views on many questions, but if you believe that Supreme Court decisionmaking should be a contest of ideas rather than power, so that the measure of a Justice’s greatness is his contribution of new and thoughtful perspectives that enlarge the debate, then Justice Thomas is now our greatest Justice.

(Emphasis supplied.) The SCOTUS as a "contest of ideas?" I would have thought that the traditional view was that contest was supposed to play out in the "political arenas." Is Goldstein conceding (and would conservatives concede) that the "appellate courts engage in policymaking?"

So much for the "umpire calling balls and strikes" ay?

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 01, 2009 (boomark / email).