ABA survey

While some expressed astonishment at the numbers, this came as no surprise to me at all.

The question the ABA doesn't seem to have considered, however, is whether this result is due to criticism of judges or activism on the part of judges. I would suggest that most judges are not activists. Most judges truly want to uphold the rule of law. But, and this is a big but, the judges who do promote their personally held values as opposed to the rule of law are both high profile and are doing so in cases that touch on hot-button issues. A case like Roe v. Wade or Lawrence v. Texas or Bush v. Gore makes one think that the judges deciding the case are making themselves the final arbiters, not of the law, but of how things will run regardless of the voice of the people.