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Jesse Gordon on Government Reform Editor-in-chief, OnTheIssues.org

Supports “judicial activism”; judges should be subjective

A: I’m all for judicial activism. I think that justices should decide issues using their subjective judgement, within their interpretation of the Constitution in their times.

If we extend the “self-restraint” argument to its logical conclusion, we would hardly need a Supreme Court at all -- a computer could apply the Constitution to each case and determine the answer that best fits. Such “objectivity” is never really objective -- it’s equally subjective as my version, but pretends to be objective to hide its bias. Let the justices express their subjective views -- they always have the opportunity to fully explain themselves anyway. “Self-restraint” in the current political environment means the same thing as a conservative interpretation.