Modern Age - Winter 2018 - 23

The Libertarian Constitutional Fantasy

This notion of "judicial engagement" purports to be an originalist theory, meaning that it is supposedly consistent with the
original public meaning of the Constitution. I strongly disagree.
The theory of judicial engagement is unsound as a matter of
history and contrary to the original understanding of the framers. Moreover, it is flawed in theory and practically unworkable.
Critics have accused judicial engagement of being an invitation
for libertarian judicial activism, but given the overwhelmingly
liberal orientation of the legal academy, the organized bar, and
the federal courts, the theory will likely just encourage more
mischief by progressive judges seeking to impose their personal predilections on the polity-continuing (or accelerating)
a trend that began in the 1960s with the activism of the Warren
Court.
The libertarian theory of constitutional law is clever and
undoubtedly well-intentioned. The theory of judicial engagement posits that all nonharmful conduct is a protected liberty,
and these individual "rights" are safeguarded from "majoritarian"
interference. The real problem with the courts, proponents insist,
has been judicial passivity, even abdication, especially since the
New Deal. The government has grown, they believe, because
courts have not held the Congress and state legislatures in check.
All we need to tame the Leviathan is "better judging." Enter "judicial engagement," which sounds innocuous but actually reorders
the way our government would operate in fundamental-even
radical-ways.
By severely constraining the states' police power, and presuming all laws to be unconstitutional, the libertarian theory
both centralizes decision-making in the national government
(i.e., the federal courts) at the expense of the states and conmodernagejournal.com

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Modern Age - Winter 2018

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