摘要：Since the days of the Warren Court, conservatives have attacked “judicial activism.” Beginning with Judge Robert Bork’s Supreme Court nomination hearings, and lately with increasing frequency, liberals have sought to turn the tables. Critics now charge that conservative judges are activists, especially when they undermine liberal precedents or strike down liberal legislation. Defenders of judicial activism have all but disappeared. One sign of this apparent consensus is that all Supreme Court nominees now promise to be paragons of judicial restraint. Any of the following quotes, for example, could easily have been uttered by any of the four most recent nominees: I’m not quite sure how I would characterize my politics. But one thing I do know is that my politics would be, must be, have to be completely separate from my judging. And I-I agree with you to the extent that you’re saying, look, judging is about considering a case that comes before you, the parties that comes [sic] before you, listening to the arguments they make, reading the briefs they file, and then considering how the law applies to their case-how the law applies to their case-not how your own personal views, not how your own political views might suggest, you know, anything about the case, but what the law says, whether it’s the Constitution or whether it’s a statute. Now, sometimes that’s a hard question, what the law says, and sometimes judges can disagree about that question. But the question is always what the law says. Sometimes it’s hard to give meaning to a constitutional term in a particular case. But you don’t look to your own values and beliefs. You look outside yourself to other sources. This is the basis for, you know, that judges wear black robes, because it doesn’t matter who they are as individuals. That’s not going to shape their decision. It’s their understanding of the law that will shape their decision. Judges have to be careful not to inject their own views into the interpretation of the Constitution, and for that matter, into the interpretation of statutes. That is not the job that we are given. That is not authority that we are given. [T]he role of judges is to interpret both the Constitution and law. Their role is to do both in accordance with their terms. And, so, that is the function of a judge. Clearly, a judge looks at the terms
