Friday, September 12, 2008

WSJ.com - Good Judges Are More Important Than Ever

Democrats have often caricatured conservatives' concern with judges as part of what they consider an "obsession" with abortion. In fact, over the last 40 years judicial activism has brought the courts to the center of national policy making in virtually all aspects of life.

All nominees must be decent human beings that meet the highest standard of competence, honesty and integrity. But they must judge neutrally, without fear or favor, and without regard to what interests may be before them and their personal feelings for the litigants or the causes they may represent. Justice and the rule of law demand no less. The Constitution and laws must be interpreted as they were written, not as judges think they should have been written.

The framers of the U.S. Constitution believed that the judiciary would be the "least dangerous branch" because the judges commanded neither purse nor sword, and would exercise judgment and not will. In order to keep faith with the Constitution they drafted, all Americans, whatever their policy preferences, should agree that this is the judiciary's proper role, and that foreign and defense policy must be left to the politically accountable president and Congress.

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